Covid Chronicles. Chapter 10: Unemployment Insurance Claims Skyrocket

Read chapter 9 here

Source:  New York Times

Sunday, March 22 

According to an article in yesterday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (and confirmed by JoAnna when I asked her about it), the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Division of the Department of Workforce Development receives 5,000 unemployment claims in a typical week. Last week, with restaurants, bars, shopping malls and many other business locations temporarily closing, the number skyrocketed to 45,700. Fortunately, the reporting system is automated, with verification built into the software program. Needless to say, none of the UI staff has been furloughed. In fact, employees have been transferred from other divisions to help with the processing overload, as UI has been inundated with questions and requests for help. (UI staff are able to work from home.) 

During Scott Walker‘s 8 years as governor, Republicans in the state legislature used their majorities to make it harder for the jobless to receive benefits. They see the program as promoting laziness and dependency — this from an all-white, mostly male group that didn’t schedule any floor sessions to take place after March 2020. (To insure they’d have plenty of time for their re-election campaigns leading up to November.)

In 2015, Wisconsin Republicans pushed through a law adding a few hurdles to receiving unemployment benefits: instituting a one-week waiting period for benefits, verifying four weekly job search sessions, stipulating that workers are both able to work and available to work, and requiring a drug test. (The last item was never implemented, as it requires permission from the federal government. Trump approved the request in 2019, but so far Democratic Governor Tony Evers has refused to implement it.) 

Thanks to Covid, the ‘availability’ provision means that anyone who needs to quarantine or contracts the disease isn’t eligible for unemployment. 

Once GOP legislators realized what a mess they created for themselves, they were more than happy to have Evers issue an emergency order waiving the work search and availability requirements. The legislature will have to act on eliminating the one-week delay. I’m not holding my breath on that action taking place.

Read chapter 11 here