Apr 28, 2020 3 min read

In seven weeks, Jerry Oleksiak has seen Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor & Industry transformed into the Department of Labor Intensity.

“We were staffed for record-low unemployment when this started, and within two weeks, we had record-high unemployment,” the secretary of L&I said Monday afternoon.

Oleksiak and Susan Dickinson, director of Unemployment Compensation Benefits Policy for L&I, spoke during a WebEx media briefing Monday afternoon. COVID-19 has the entire globe under siege, of course, and for L&I, the virus’ rapid movement has led to overwhelming numbers of UC and workers’ compensation applications, and rising hordes of angry applicants whose benefits have been delayed or not acted upon.

Labor & Industry did not initially have a workforce large enough to accommodate this workload, and delays have been exacerbated by glitches in a system installed to handle the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program funding, enacted out of the CARES Act. That system went live only a week and a half ago.

“We’ve had delays, and I know people are frustrated and feel distress,” Oleksiak said. “We’re frustrated as well. These are our friends, neighbors and family.”

Numbers are continuing to rise in the department, as an estimated 150,000 more individuals applied for UC benefits in the past week. That hoisted the total to 1.65 million, about 41 times the 40,000 applicants who had filed before the pandemic swept into Pennsylvania in March.

Dickinson estimated that about 70% of those 1.65 million have received benefits.

The secretary said about $3.5 billion has been distributed to claimants, $2.6 billion of that to regular UC recipients.

UC staff numbers also are increasing, according to Oleksiak. It is at 500-plus, which includes workers from other areas of L&I and 70 retirees brought back. And about 100 others, going through the hiring and training processes, are expected to begin work by mid-May.

“We’re having delays and we’re asking for patience,” Oleksiak said. “You may feel let down, but you will be made whole. Delays won’t affect your benefits.”

Dickinson said her department has been dealing with “a massive project. It’s quite a lot of work getting an unemployment system up.”

For the second Monday in a row, she said numerous questions and concerns about PINs – needed to navigate the system – have been expressed. PINs are sent by registered mail.

Dickinson said, however, that “we’re all caught up on mailing them. If you don’t have a PIN and you filed a while ago, it’s not a system problem. It could be because of something specific on a claim.”

She said an applicant should wait at least three weeks before contacting L&I about the matter, and could request a new PIN online.

Asked whether the UC fund is being stressed, Oleksiak replied that it is “fine. We were on our way to being solvent by summer before this hit. It depends on how long this pandemic goes before we see stress on the system. We’ll work as best we can to make payments.”