Unemployment benefits: Washington state calls in the National Guard to help with claims

[Amy-Strange]

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Unemployment benefits: Washington state calls in the National Guard to help with claims

Washington state is summoning the National Guard to battle its backlog of unemployment claims.

The state is still struggling to process tens of thousands of unemployment applications amid a massive fraud attack, as well as a surge in filings triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Washington flagged 190,000 claims in mid-May as possible "imposter fraud," where criminals using stolen personal information sign up for benefits. The state unemployment agency, which temporarily paused payments while it validated all claims, is giving special attention to these suspect applications.

About 50 National Guard members will arrive next week and undergo training, which should take one or two days, said Nick Demerice, a spokesman for the state's Employment Security Department. They will focus on verifying the identity of the 42,000 residents who fell into the suspect batch but were receiving benefits before mid-May.

Another 36,000 applications have other issues that have to be addressed, Suzi LeVine, the agency's commissioner, said at a news briefing Thursday. The rest have been resolved.

[SNIP]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/unemployment-benefits-washington-state-calls-in-the-national-guard-to-help-with-claims/ar-BB15pgHU?ocid=msedgdhp
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[More_Cowbell]

1. I'm grateful to be in California

4 weeks ago my employer let 10% of employees go, including me. I'm 60 and trying to find a job in this historic unemployment era. At least CA has its act together on unemployment.

[MichMan]

2. National Guard? There aren't any state employees from other departments ?

[Amy-Strange]

3. I'm on Unemployment, and I think it's the state's fault...

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When I applied for Unemployment online, they never required any type of identification, except to ask for my WA ID# and SS#.

Last month (May 16), they asked almost everyone currently receiving benefits to send a copy of their physical WA ID and SS card to the ESD fraud Unit, by e-mail or through the ESD website.

That's a whole hell of a lot of people, and I suspect that a lot of them didn't have an SS Card either.

I applied for one online, that Sunday (May 17), but I didn't get an approval allowing it to be mailed until that Thursday (May 21).

Now the race was on.

The deadline set by WA state to send in those 2 documents was one and a half weeks away, on Wednesday (May 27), but remember, the following Monday (May 25) was Memorial day, and the PO doesn't do mail on that day.

I didn't get my card until May 29, two days late.

Right now, everything is pending, and I haven't seen a penny since May 12th.

The funny and ironic part is that when you apply online for a replacement card at the SSA, it says, right there, that you don't really need one, because you'll rarely have to show it.

Of course, paraphrasing a little, but I choked on my coffee when I read that part.
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