Millions may be getting shortchanged on unemployment benefits, agency finds

Why is the black community being impacted disproportionately by the pandemic? Yeah, that all right? I think that for me, the coronavirus pandemic definitely did sharpen my interest in public health and start put it in a little bit more perspective. Yeah, thing is definitely something that I'm interested in now, particularly as I said, helping my own community. There has been such a polarization around the public health practices in the recommendations that I think that our students have been, um, both indignant and also energized by what it means to become a health. Public health professional. Yeah, you, Whenever you're dealing with people, politics are involved. Um, but I think in general, uh, public health functions well, when we stick to the science. Okay, What we have to make sure off is that the governmental public health workforce is a destination job for the best and the brightest coming out of our schools of public health. And if we're not going after the best and the brightest, it means that the best and the brightest aren't protecting our nation from those threats that can clearly not only devastate from, ah, human perspective, but from an economic perspective, e think it'll help me Allow me to look at data better. Do better research. Ask better questions, ultimately provide better care. Be a better doctor. One thing I learned from this pandemic is that I don't know as much as I think I know. And when When people are asking me questions about my opinions on this and that and you know what should be done in this situation? Like, I wanna have those answers, I wanna be able to give you an answer.

Millions of jobless people may not be receiving the full payments they are owed, a government watchdog report released Monday found.Also, the weekly Department of Labor report on unemployment claims is not providing an accurate estimate of the number of Americans claiming benefits during the pandemic, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. That's because of backlogs in processing a historic number of claims, among other data issues.The shortchanging comes in the temporary Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program that Congress created last spring to provide benefits to the self-employed, gig workers, independent contractors and certain people affected by the coronavirus outbreak.The majority of states have been paying claimants in this program the minimum benefit instead of the amount they are eligible for based on prior earnings, the GAO said. Most states decided to do this initially to get the new program up and running faster, but then did not recalculate benefits based on actual earnings.The report also highlighted problems with assessing how many people are receiving unemployment benefits during this period of historically high claims. Accurate data is important, especially as lawmakers must decide in coming weeks whether to extend two key pandemic unemployment benefits programs they created in March to respond to the outbreak. The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which provides an additional 13 weeks of benefits, both expire at the end of the year.Some 12 million out-of-work Americans could be affected, according to an estimate by The Century Foundation.The GAO has recommended that the Department of Labor revise its weekly news releases to clarify that the numbers it reports do not accurately estimate the number of Americans claiming benefits, as well as pursue options to report the correct data.According to the latest weekly report from the Department of Labor, 9.1 million people were collecting Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits and 4.5 million were receiving the extended Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation payments.

CNN —

Millions of jobless people may not be receiving the full payments they are owed, a government watchdog report released Monday found.

Also, the weekly Department of Labor report on unemployment claims is not providing an accurate estimate of the number of Americans claiming benefits during the pandemic, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. That's because of backlogs in processing a historic number of claims, among other data issues.

The shortchanging comes in the temporary Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program that Congress created last spring to provide benefits to the self-employed, gig workers, independent contractors and certain people affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

The majority of states have been paying claimants in this program the minimum benefit instead of the amount they are eligible for based on prior earnings, the GAO said. Most states decided to do this initially to get the new program up and running faster, but then did not recalculate benefits based on actual earnings.

The report also highlighted problems with assessing how many people are receiving unemployment benefits during this period of historically high claims. Accurate data is important, especially as lawmakers must decide in coming weeks whether to extend two key pandemic unemployment benefits programs they created in March to respond to the outbreak. The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which provides an additional 13 weeks of benefits, both expire at the end of the year.

Some 12 million out-of-work Americans could be affected, according to an estimate by The Century Foundation.

The GAO has recommended that the Department of Labor revise its weekly news releases to clarify that the numbers it reports do not accurately estimate the number of Americans claiming benefits, as well as pursue options to report the correct data.

According to the latest weekly report from the Department of Labor, 9.1 million people were collecting Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits and 4.5 million were receiving the extended Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation payments.

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