COLORADO, USA — The Colorado Department of Labor (CDLE) reports that around 70,000 to 80,000 Colorado residents eligible to receive benefits from the Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) program have not gone through the certification process.
LWA is a federally-funded program that provides up to six weeks of an additional $300 in weekly benefits to claimants who were eligible for at least $100 in weekly benefits between July 26 and Sep. 5.
Around 300,000 to 350,000 residents in the state are eligible for LWA, and CDLE said it is extending the deadline to become certified to Oct. 24.
Claimants who need certification can call CDLE or go to their website to complete the process, which officials said should only take a few minutes.
CDLE said $357 million has been paid in Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) unemployment benefits through the week ending Oct. 3. Around 65% of the fund has been used, and CDLE said there are currently no plans for additional funding.
> Video above: Full weekly update from CDLE on Oct. 8.
CDLE also reported round 9,000 claimants received overpayments from the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, which represents roughly 7% of Colorado residents who received payments.
PUA was a federally-funded program that provided an extra $400 in weekly benefits to anyone eligible for regular unemployment benefits. The program expired on July 26.
According to CDLE, overpayments were mostly caused by misreporting and overreporting, which was primarily due to gig economy workers who are not used to reporting federal taxes improperly filling out forms.
Anyone who is found to have received an overpayment has 20 days to file an appeal. CDLE said that a write-off will be possible for claimants who misunderstood the forms or claimants who are experiencing significant financial hardship.
Roughly 88% of appeals are being heard within two weeks of their filing date, CDLE said.
Due to the misunderstandings, CDLE said it stopping all PUA applications until new simplified forms are released on Oct. 29.
CDLE reported 5,892 initial regular unemployment claims and 2,309 PUA claims were filed the week ending Oct. 3.
CDLE also said that $48 million in regular unemployment benefits were paid out the same week.
Since mid-March, when the coronavirus pandemic was declared, 569,357 initial regular unemployment claims have been filed. Including PUA, a total of 734,120 claims have been filed, according to CDLE.
Benefits paid since March 29, according to CDLE:
- Regular UI: $2.01 Billion
- PUA: $658.7 Million
Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (additional $600 in weekly unemployment benefits): $2.47 Billion - Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (extends unemployment benefits by up to 13 weeks): $96.5 Million
- State Extended Benefits (extends unemployment benefits an additional 13 weeks): $663,300
- LWA: $357.5 Million
- Total: $5.59 Billion
Industries with the most claims for the week ending Sep. 19, according to CDLE:
- Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services: 396 (11.6% of claims that week)
- Construction: 380 (11.1%)
- Retail Trade: 376 (11.0%)
- Healthcare and Social Assistance: 363 (10.6%)
- Accommodation and Food Services: 363 (10.6%)
- Professional and Technical Services: 251 (7.4%)
- Manufacturing: 201 (5.9%)
- Wholesale Trade: 145 (4.3%)
- Transportation and Warehousing: 142 (4.2%)
- Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation: 128 (3.8%)
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell slightly last week to a still-high 840,000, evidence that job cuts remain elevated seven months into the pandemic recession.
Thursday’s report from the Labor Department said the number of people who are continuing to receive unemployment benefits dropped to 11 million.
The decline suggests that many of the unemployed are being recalled to their old jobs. But it also reflects the fact that some have used up the 26 weeks of their regular state benefits and have transitioned to extended benefit programs that last an additional three months.
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