The long-awaited rollout of federal unemployment benefits for those who have used all the other options now has a starting date of Feb. 22, the Department of Labor in Colorado announced Sunday.
“We know that many Coloradans are currently facing severe economic hardships and have been anxiously awaiting the ability to apply for these additional benefits,” said Joe Barela, executive director of the Department of Labor, in a statement. written statement said. “The built-in implementation of the program was frustrating for many, but our priority was to get benefits in the hands of the most suitable claimants we could possibly reach at one time.”
The beleagured state agency has been criticized for weeks over how long it takes before unemployed Coloradans can claim benefits made available by the Continuing Aid Act, which was passed on Dec. 27.
But the state has long warned that it could take up to ten weeks to reprogram its computer system before the additional benefits can be distributed to everyone’s account. The state also revamped its decades-old computer system in the first week of January, a process that has been postponed since April.
The weeks of waiting left hundreds of thousands of people angry and frustrated at unemployment and unable to pay bills and rents. On Monday, about 230,000 Coloradans were finally able to reopen their accounts and request a payment for the first time since the benefits ended on December 26, when the CARES law expired. But this group included only those who had benefits on December 26th. It also included at least 70,000 people with regular unemployment, whose accounts were automatically paid the $ 300-a-week bonus retroactively until December 27th.
A second group, known as Phase 2, includes those who have exhausted Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC). On Thursday, labor officials said Phase 2 might not begin until the “end of the month,” or two months after federal lawmakers approved the new aid plan.
Both programs extend the weeks of eligible unemployment by another 11 weeks. People also qualify for an additional $ 300 per week for each week between December 27 and March 13 that they are eligible for at least $ 1 unemployment benefit.
The Phase 2 group also includes those applying for PUA for the first time, which is available to workers and the self-employed. The PEUC benefits are available to people who have used up all their usual unemployment benefits.
MORE: What works: what we learned after a week of Colorado’s unemployment benefits for pandemic
The first phase of unemployment benefits was not without problems, such as users suddenly letting themselves down with overpayments, payment term and refusal. Government officials said they worked with Deloitte, the software vendor of the Department of Labor, to solve problems overnight or within days.
“We may have some twists and turns to work out, but our new, modernized cloud-based system will enable much faster implementation of future pandemic assistance legislation that we expect from the new government,” Barela said.
The Department of Labor has said it will be eligible for Phase 2 people in the coming weeks on how to reopen their claims.
The state labor agency said more than 104,000 people had received more than $ 166 million in benefits as part of Phase 1 since February 1.
Read more Colorado Sun stories about unemployment.
