The Labor Department issued flawed data on jobless workers filing for unemployment while underpaying some of those workers as the pandemic has prompted massive layoffs, the Government Accountability Office reported on Monday.
The historically high number of workers claiming jobless benefits during the pandemic has created a backlog at the state level in processing workers into the unemployment system, which has prompted those workers to submit multiple claims.
“Individuals who submitted multiple claims are counted more than once in DOL’s estimate, which has been prevalent during the pandemic,” the GAO report states.
The GAO report also found that the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program underpaid many of its recipients.
The program is a new category of eligibility created for workers sidelined by the pandemic, such as gig workers whose work dried up.
The GAO found that “the majority of states have been paying PUA claimants the minimum allowable benefit instead of the amount they are eligible for based on prior earnings.”
For example, Maine’s minimum benefit available under PUA is $172 a week. The maximum benefit is $445 a week. The GAO found that the state was paying, on average, $194 a week in PUA benefits.
Jobless workers must submit documentation of wages to their state’s Labor Department to have their PUA benefit recalculated.
The PUA, which provides up to 39 weeks of unemployment benefits to jobless workers who otherwise would not be eligible for state unemployment benefits, is currently scheduled to expire on Dec. 26, the day after Christmas, unless Congress can agree to extend it into 2021.
