Unemployed without compensation

Paul waited five weeks before his unemployment claim was approved.

The 36-year-old Chester man, whose full name the Tribune has agreed to withhold due to the sensitive nature of his situation, lost his job as a food and safety quality assurance specialist at the beginning of October. He said he had suffered some injuries in an automobile accident and struggled to work as efficiently as he did before the accident, so the company he worked for terminated his employment.

He applied for unemployment compensation soon after he lost his job, but didn’t hear anything for days and couldn’t get through to the unemployment office on the phone. Days turned into weeks.

While he waited, he struggled to pay his bills and got notice that he was being evicted from his home. He said he has nowhere else to go if he’s evicted.

“It almost puts you in a situation where, you know, you’re in a crisis. You don’t want that. Nobody wants that,” Paul said.

“It’s just me. But I can’t imagine if I had children or something. Then, it would be even worse.”

Paul contacted the Philadelphia Unemployment Project, and the team there was able to help him sort out the issues that were holding up his claim. He finally got approved in the middle of November.

He was lucky he didn’t have to file an appeal, or he might still be waiting.

Pennsylvania’s record low unemployment rate

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.4% in April 2023 and has been hovering around that number since, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s the lowest the unemployment rate has been in over a decade, and the longest streak of low unemployment since 1976.

The state unemployment rate is lower than the national unemployment rate, which was 4.2% in November, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Even with the record low unemployment rate, Pennsylvania paid out $1.66 billion in unemployment benefits in 2023, according to an actuarial report from the state Department of Labor. The average payment was $453.22 per week. Data for 2024 is not yet available.

Pennsylvania not meeting federal unemployment payment standards

State and federal officials look at backlogs in unemployment compensation claims and appeals in terms of timeliness — how long it takes the state to issue a first payment or issue a decision on an appeal.

The Social Security Act requires states to pay out unemployment benefits “when due,” and federal regulations elaborate on that to mean “with the greatest promptness that is administratively feasible.”

States like Pennsylvania are in compliance with federal regulations if they issue first payments of unemployment benefits within 14 days for 87% of claims, and within 35 days for 93% of claims.

For much of this year, Pennsylvania was nowhere near meeting those standards.

In March, the state issued first payments within 14 days for only 38.05% of claims and within 35 days for 65.11% of claims, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor. The numbers gradually improved throughout the year. And in November, Pennsylvania issued first payments within 14 days for 85.03% of claims and within 35 days for 93.89% of claims.

November was the first month that the state partially complied with federal regulations since April 2020.

Appeals are a bit more complicated. The state divides appeals into two categories: Lower-authority appeals are when an employer or unemployed person appeals the initial determination of eligibility or benefit amounts and a referee decides. Higher-authority appeals are when an employer or unemployed person escalates the appeal to the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review.

States are in compliance with federal regulations if they issue decisions within 30 days for at least 60% of lower-authority appeals, and within 45 days for 80% of lower-authority appeals.

Pennsylvania is not meeting that standard, and has not met it since February 2020.

Pennsylvania was closer to meeting standards earlier this year than it is now. In March, it issued decisions within 41 days for 49.13% of appeals, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor. (Although the federal regulations set the benchmarks at 30 days and 45 days, they track data at 25 and 40 days.) The response rate has generally dropped throughout the year. In November, the state issued decisions within 41 days for only 36.06% of appeals, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Federal data shows that, in November, first-level appeals sat in the state system for an average of 70 days before a referee issued a decision.

The state is doing better with responding to appeals now than it was from 2021 to 2023.

Federal data shows that, in July 2022, state referees issued decisions within 41 days for only 17.32% of first-level appeals. At that point, the average age of appeals in the state system was 194 days — about 6½ months.

By October 2022, the state was issuing decisions on a greater percentage of first-level appeals, but the average age of first-level appeals in the system was 244 days — about eight months.