Sign Georgia Banking Claim Now

Industry sign banking georgia claim now

all right all right we're recording it looks good you look perfect I know who you are of course but can you say and spell your first and last name and give me your title with DL I will it's ker Shekar right k ER sha CA RT w RI ght and I'm the director of communications here for the Georgia Department of Labor well again thank you so much for really taking the time out to talk to us today I'm sure you all have been very busy especially since mid-march are you guys still is busy right now as you weren't then or how is it looking we are things are a little different now the challenges are different to begin with we just saw an incredible increase in volume overnight we were able to auto process a lot of those claims now they're becoming a little more challenging they're taking a little more time those that we can audit process we do we have processed incredible amount of claims over 3,000,000 we announced today and are able to pay a majority of those that are ballot to be paid so we're making a lot of payments and issuing a lot of money to those eligible Georgians and we're really focusing on getting those other claimants who are still out there paid as well talk to us a little bit about the challenges that you are that you are experiencing right now within the department whether it's processing or just different challenges on applications what are some things you are facing we continue to make changes in order to audit process as many claims as we can we're implementing new tools making new rules to kind of go through and see how many claimants can we pick up with this rule how many how many can we go ahead and process that are truly valid now the the challenge is becoming fraud looking for those claims that might be fraudulent making sure that we're paying the right people making sure that we're not paying those that are eligible to be pay eventually we will have to ask for that money back if they're not eligible to be paid so we're really trying to be diligent and the guidelines that we're following and the rules that we're implementing so those are the those are the challenges that we see really on a daily basis now is really making sure we're paying folks that can be paid absolutely and when it comes to processing I know you mentioned Auto processing or something to that nature does that mean a person is looking at every single claim like a physical body or what is that Auto processing like who is actually looking at the claves if a claim can be ordering process we can take a look at that quickly and make sure that it is a valid claim with enough wages to make it valid and be able to be paid if that does not Auto cross s then we have to have somebody go in there individually and look and see what is stopping this payment is it an ID stub is it identification has a Social Security number been input wrong is it an employer filed claim is there incorrect information in there is the birthday not matching something on their driver's license those kind of things we have to look at those is there something else that stopping this payment is it a wage issue have their wage has been reported accurately we need to look at each and every one of those stops have has their employer said that they've called them back to work and they haven't gone so we there's several things that could come into play at this point that might be stopping a payment and we have to have somebody go and individually and look at this a lot of different things of course can flag those applications okay see them talk just a little bit about you mentioned how many have been filed out of out of the claims that have actually been processed how many do we have left or how many well yeah so there's there's a lot of numbers that we kind of thrown around out there to explain where we're getting 91% of valid claims have been paid so we announced today that we have processed over three million claims that's a lot of claims that are coming through now some of those are not valid only 1.4 million of those claims have been deemed valid if they're not valid they may be duplicates where people have gone in and said hey I need to file another claim we asked for folks to please don't do that kind of claim unless you're asked by the Department of Labor to do so or your employer is no longer filing for you and you need to file an individual claim your own but if that's not the case police topology can't clean it'll just delay your payment's so we look at those of those three million 1.4 million are actually valid and 1.2 million of those have actually requested a payment so those are the numbers that we look at the system has to you have to request a payment for us to know to pay you so there's 1.2 million who have requested a payment we've paid over 1.1 million and s that equates to about 91 percent of those eligible for a payment have received a payment from the Department of Labor yes ma'am and that's an excellent point I'm living right now in the state of Tennessee and so with our unemployment process you have to certify to make sure that you're receiving that amount is that the same thing as anything is requesting a payment we you know we call it we call it we call it different things you know it could be if you certify for your week or if you're requesting a payment we just want to make sure that people understand please make sure that you go and request a payment so the system will know to pay you absolutely and you're to do that once a week right that's correct yes it has to be done weekly either you do it on behalf of yourself or your employer files on your behalf but everything has to be done weekly so we know to pay you weekly and if for any reason you need it your claims to stop say you got your job back or you were not furloughed you just don't certify certified that's correct you just don't ask for a payment that week yes and that's what we tell employer employers who are filing on behalf of their employees if they're if they've come back to work and you no longer need this process just don't certify for them weekly that makes sense to me that's perfect process for them yes mm-hmm okay and so if people need to get in touch with the Department of Labor how do they how do they successfully do that we are asking for us to reach out to the Career Center when they file claim they get information back and it says hey your Career Center is making or it is Albany or it is Atlanta wherever it is we're asking folks to reach out to that Career Center and we completely and totally understand this has been a very tough process those phone lines have been busy there are only a certain number of loans that come in to those career centers and when somebody is on them if there's a customer service representative on them then they'll ring busy we're asking folks to continue to reach out we are listening to those voicemail messages we're calling people back we're getting a ton of emails we are returning those emails we ask folks if you're going to leave a message with us please just leave one that requires somebody to go in and listen to all this voicemail messages we ask you to please leave one send us one email we're trying our best to get back to everyone that has reached out to us so we ask you to continue to do that watch your MIUI portal you know we put different information in that minding my portal so that you can have access to that and see what's going on with your claim we also continue to put new information on our social media platforms if we see a trend and things that are happening with claimants we make sure we put that information out there if there is certain information that's coming in on extensions or something that you need to do with your claim we're putting those in that information out on social media platforms coming up we're looking at will be epic $600 weekly supplement be extended we don't know that yet we're waiting on Congress to make that decision as well as soon as we hear anything we're going to get that information out to our folks our Georgians and we'll put that out on our social media platforms will also put information on our website so there's several different areas that you can go in and get information from us and we know sometimes it's difficult and it has been challenging and we just ask you to continue to reach out try to not do so multiple times a day but we're trying our best to get back to everyone who's reached out to us understood I wanted to ask you all as well are you a limited staff right now because of the pandemic are you all working at full staff we're working at the staff that we had back in February so in February we were looking at a 3% unemployment rate so our staff has continually dwindled over the past several years based on budget cuts based on the number of people that have been on unemployment so when this pandemic occurred and it kind of happened overnight we have not been able to really work on staffing up we've asked retirees to come back we've hired some contractors in different areas the issue is the complexity of the unemployment insurance system it is not something that people can come in and and really jump in and help in several different areas like appeals or examining those claims and making determinations on eligibility that requires several years of experience I wish we could go out there and find a whole bunch of claims examiner's and hire them tomorrow we would love that but we are we're working on building up where we need to but yes we're working with the limited staff and they're working seven days a week right now so they've been doing that since March so you know we continue to work hard to make sure that we're getting to everyone absolutely and I know it's a stressful time for everyone for our community of course with a DOL I mean it's just it's been a time it's been a hard hard it has people that's I think that's the issue with us is we understand we so understand that people are you know struggling and they're having difficulty making payments and I wish I had a magic button where we could get everybody paid at once but then you know we're also we're also running the system on behalf of the US Department of Labor and with that comes an incredible responsibility to make sure that we are upholding the integrity of the system so we have to make sure that we're not paying fraudulent claims we will be audited and we're responsible for upholding that integrity so we have to make sure that we are looking at both sides absolutely and I think that it cannot I'll probably come back and want to talk to you about later is when we look at we're doing some research now on fraud running some reports so we may have some information to release in the next week or so on that so I'll reach out we'll probably do another press conference a virtual press conference with the Commissioner so I will send you information on that when we decide to do that we'll probably do that when we make an announcement about if the air puck is extending what we're doing about fraud what we could potentially be doing with educational workers if a lot of people go back virtually and not in person so there's several different things that are coming up that we're probably going to want to get some information out about so I'll send you that link if we do that virtual press conference again so that you can kind of come in we allow people to allow reporters to come in and record that so that you can get some sound bites and video of the Commissioner answering those questions that sounds awesome we love to be a part of that thank you we're almost there well wanted to talk because you mentioned there are several different ways that people can actually reach out and learn more information but how easy or how difficult on a scale of one to ten one being very easy to being difficult if I needed to speak to a person directly about a specific situation that I'm in how would I go about doing that like I said continue to call your Career Center leave a message let us call you back one of the things that that we're doing here is if we reach out to someone and we don't get them we make sure we leave them a message that says we're gonna call you back between 6:00 and 6:30 on Tuesday so that we give you a time frame it is difficult to get in touch with someone here we completely internally understand that with the volume that we are seeing and the phone ones that we have coming in here and we've increased our capacity and an AT&T is helping with that and we're trying to get as many lines as we can in we are listening to those messages and trying to reach back out to you so we're trying to make that work as many options as we possibly can send us an email let us see if we can answer you that way you may get an email late at night you may get one on the weekend we've got different folks that are working those those lines and returning those calls at all times of the day seven days a week which is good to know that you know employees will take the opportunity for the only weekends to return a lot of those emails so you may get an email but is there a way to tell for people that you can expect to hear a response from us within two days within three days we're going to get back to you in that kind of a timeframe is that possible to let folks know it's that is very difficult to answer at this point it depends on which Career Center you're working out of and what that volume looks like you know we get a report every single morning we look at how many calls are coming in how many claims are coming in how many potential fraud claims are coming in and try to review all of that with our IT teams and our operational teams our communication teams to see where we need to where we need to be working at the most so we're it's difficult to say how quickly we can return those calls I know that we're we're trying to identify those claims that have been out there the longest those folks they're still waiting and waiting a really long time we've got a specific team that's working just on those claims to try to get those resolved there's several different areas we'd like to work on first but you know we try to look at that list and prioritize and make sure that we're getting to those folks who've been out there the longest and I'm glad you mentioned that the folks that have been waiting a really long time as you say that are in that specific category how long have they been waiting since mid-march how long have they been waiting we're we're addressing those that have been waiting since mid-march a lot of times there there will be you know those couldn't be Auto process there's a challenge there's something some kind of issue related to those claims and we're trying to figure out what what is that issue is there something that we can pick up and maybe that'll take care of a lot of those claims we're not seeing that at this point we've kind of Auto processed everything that we possibly can so we're sending folks to look at those individually some of them have a couple issues that are going on with that that we need to address and and fix some of those claims can be paid and some of them cannot some of those folks are not eligible for unemployment benefits if you've been fired or if you quit your job sometimes you are not eligible for benefits we have to go through and explain that process sometimes you go through a benefit eligibility review where it's determined if you're allowed benefits or not and those hearing officers we don't have a ton of those so we're going in and trying to schedule those hearings we're trying to make as much of this happen as quickly as we possibly can and try to keep folks informed on what's happening sometimes that's difficult I wish I could say we're going to get back in touch with you in 48 hours sometimes that's possible and sometimes it's not and then the centers that you've been mentioning that's really great information is there a specific center for every city for every county in Georgia like say we're working in Macon but we cover maybe 32 counties do they all report to that make an office or how does that work no it's given their split up into where they're actually physically located so when they file that claim based on their interests they're given that Career Ce ter that's closest to them that they can report to and then it can call right now they can't report to them but they think I can call or email or send information to that is the Career Center that is assigned to them during your claim Tom we're almost there I think I have one or two and then we'll be good together we did receive a couple of emails of people just having a hard time getting through um few people actually did mention that if they did get someone with AOL on the phone that maybe they got disconnected or they got hung up on to them it seemed that way is that happening with DOL because that's very concerning to hear oh and let me tell you all the all the claims officers that I talked to I mean that is mortifying to them sometimes with our phone system it is there is so much volume coming in that it will break a call and that call will be disconnected I assure you people are not hanging up on applicants on purpose that that is horrible customer service and something that we do not do here at the Department of Labor so if that's happening that does not need to be happening ever so we're looking at that call volume if that is occurring we were talking to tea to try to address that issue and make sure that it's not happening so what was your only part of the question oh yes um that was pretty much it yes that was it but I'm just wanted to follow up on that if the person people if you have folks that have not been able to get through and you have specific situations send those to me and let me look at them let me see if there's if there's something that we can do you know we we do that so if there's someone that's out there that has not been able to get through if you'll send that to me I'll take a look at that and then of course I can't give you the specific information but say it is a you know it's an ID stop or if one of the Commons situations that we're seeing now is the employer filed on behalf of that employee for many many weeks and now they've stopped they've either asked that employee to come back and they haven't or that employer just isn't filing those claims anymore and if they're not asking for that payment weekly they're not getting it so they'll think that's something that the DOL has done something to stop their payments when really there's not a request for payment coming in so we're seeing that over and over again but if you'll send me those individual claims I'll take a look at those and see what we can do with them and then I'll let you know what the issues were so that you might you know and your when you're talking about this when you're doing this report you can kind of say hey we looked at a couple of claims and one of them was because the employer was filing for them anymore I tell claimants if your if your payments have stopped and your employer was filing on your behalf please reach out to that employer and make sure they're still requesting a payment if they're not then they either need to convert your claim to an individual claim so that you can do it or you need to follow an individual claim yourself so send me those and I'll take a look at them okay I think that's all I have is there anything that I did not ask you that you want to talk about it that we should mention today no maybe maybe that the last thing that I mentioned if you are not receiving payments anymore and your employer were spying on your behalf please make sure that your employer's continuing to follow your if not they need to convert your claim or you need to file an individual claim for yourself just that we're seeing that a lot yeah so I mean in some sometimes that employer hasn't asked that employee to come back to work and they don't feel comfortable going back to work or they've just quit filing for them but that is an issue we're seeing over and over again and in that scenario does that person they reach out to their employer but do they eventually file for themselves depending on what happens with that conversation or anything on this situation so if they if their employer is not filing in their behalf anymore and they've asked them to come back they always have the ability to file for themselves they can anyone can file an unemployment claim whether or not you're eligible or not that has to be determined so you could go in and say I'm you know compromised I meet the certain qualification especially those qualifications that are listed in those Kovach guidelines as part of the emergency a state of emergency that the governor issued as long as that state of emergency is in place there are several common reasons that you could not be working at this point so if you if your employer quits filing for you and you are forced to file on your own we'll look at those separation reasons what was the reason that you were separated from your employer and we could potentially you can be found eligible for an unemployment at that time based on your individual claim so at all it all comes down to your eligibility review and whether or not we deem you eligible for benefits well thank you so much you have answered a plethora of my questions I appreciate it I really really do no no touch definitely about next week and what's to come with that especially with that decision yeah I'm gonna add you to the press-conference list and then if you have those people send me an email about them and I'll see what I can do with them thank you so much and have a great rest of your day