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PRITZKER
AGAIN DELAYING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS FOR INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS, GIG
WORKERS
Illinois Policy Institute/
Ben Szalinski
Illinois’
self-employed workers have been unable to receive assistance since the
pandemic began. Now the state wants them to apply, be denied, and apply
again for help. |
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 Since
Illinois’ stay-at-home order began at the end of March, nearly 913,000 workers
have sought unemployment insurance, with many fighting the state computer and
phone systems to file claims.
As bad as some have had it, independent contractors and gig workers have had it
worse. Even though federal dollars were available for them on March 27, they
were told not to even bother applying until the Illinois Department of
Employment Security figured out how to fix its computers to accept their claims.
Then on April 13 Gov. J.B. Pritzker said they would be able to apply starting
May 11.
But now as they close in on that date, Illinois is telling them that for the
beleaguered system to process their claims, they must apply, let the system deny
them and then appeal that denial.
Self-employed workers, independent contractors and those
participating in the gig economy, such as Uber and Lyft drivers, do not pay for
unemployment insurance so are typically not eligible for benefits. As part of
the federal stimulus package, Congress provided for these workers with the
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, or PUA.
On May 6 IDES announced new guidelines for how self-employed workers can finally
get the promised assistance from Illinois. It recommended seeking the denial
before the new system goes live on May 11.
“If claimants receive an eligibility determination of $0, they can then appeal
that decision by providing verification of wages earned, or they can submit a
claim for PUA benefits. Claimants who have already applied for and been denied
regular unemployment benefits can submit a claim through the new PUA portal when
it opens. Receiving a denial for regular unemployment benefits is a mandatory
first step in determining eligibility for PUA,” IDES stated.
Pritzker previously blamed the delay in helping self-employed workers on the
U.S. Department of Labor, saying it had stringent and confusing regulations. In
Indiana, however, the state gave gig workers the green light to apply for
unemployment beginning April 24 so they could be ready for assistance when PUA
was ready.
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Illinois’ unemployment line is thousands deep,
despite the governor claiming there is not a backlog. According to
CBS2 Chicago, there are over 12,000 Illinoisans waiting to get
through to file for unemployment and the line is growing. With
Illinois’ independent contractor population now being told to start
claiming unemployment, just to be denied, the wait cannot improve.
“The computer system that was built to handle unemployment claims
for our state was built in 2010 in the wake of the Great Recession,
and it was built with the idea that unemployment would never really
exceed what we saw in 2009,” Pritzker said on April 13. “But today
we are seeing five times that number of claims.”
Other states face the same challenges as Illinois but have worked to
get their states’ unemployment systems up to speed to meet the
demand. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state partnered with
Google so workers could easily apply online and then one of the
1,000 call center staffers would call applicants back within three
days.
Illinois still struggles, despite weeks of committing to changes at
the unemployment offices to make the process faster and easier.
State lawmakers are still receiving complaints and intervening for
constituents. Pritzker again blamed federal regulations for limiting
who could process claims, calling 27 recent retirees back to service
because they already had the training.
At least the Illinoisans forced from their jobs by
the pandemic don’t have to rely on fiscally mismanaged Illinois to
fund their relief. The federal government provided the money.
But Illinois state leaders still appear to be able to mismanage the
unemployment claims system, creating a bottleneck and suffering that
are beyond excuse.
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