HAMPTON, Va. — With important deadlines approaching, some unemployed Virginians are growing concerned about their claims flagged for review - and if they'll be resolved in their favor.
Major federal unemployment benefit programs end on September 4, including the PUA, PEUC, and additional $300 per week payment for claimants. Regular state unemployment benefits will continue.
In Virginia, the Virginia Employment Commission has until Labor Day to comply with a judge’s order – fixing problems and clearing most of its unemployment claim backlog.
However, dozens of unemployed workers said their unemployment claims have been flagged for review for months, saying they're hopeful but lacking confidence in a resolution before the upcoming deadlines.
"What’s going to happen after September 4th for people who have relied on this," said Renee Hairston, an unemployment claimant waiting on VEC agents to clear her claim. "It leaves us asking the question, ok if they don’t believe you, what’s next."
Ashley Strickland, a Hampton mother of two, said her unemployment benefits stopped coming in March.
Strickland's claim was one of many in Virginia flagged for potential fraud, and she said she's spent months talking to Virginia Employment Commission agents and verifying her identity.
"It was changed without my knowledge, I don't know who did it," Strickland said. "You can't really do anything other than have patience, but at this point, it's like, come on we need a resolution here to pay the things we need to pay."
The same thing happened to Hairston in March. She said her personal information on her claim was inexplicably changed to an Indianapolis address.
The payments she had been receiving stopped, a VEC representative eventually told her that her account had been flagged for potential fraud, and Hairston entered a multi-step process of verifying her identity to restore benefits.
"I have to wait for someone else to investigate the matter even though I’ve done the ID.me verification, even though I’ve sent in my ID, social security card, address, light bill, and birth certificate," she said. "It’s a hurry up and wait process, but a lot of us are in situations where we’re barely surviving."
With the federal employment benefits ending next weekend, the VEC said if a claimant is found to be eligible after that date, they'll receive back pay.
However, Hairston has concerns.
"I’m at a place where I’ve stopped being angry and now I want to advocate not just for myself, but for other people as well," she said. "If someone else gets the money [some claimants] have been waiting on for months, how is this happening?"
Hairston held up a journal of job searches and applications she has submitted each week as part of the VEC's work search requirements, saying it's not a matter of people refusing to work.
Strickland said she's hopeful for a resolution in her favor.
“Hopefully I will get it, I don’t want to think about the negative and say oh my God, I don’t want to think like that," she said.
In May, a judge ordered the VEC to clear 95% of its backlog of unresolved unemployment claims by Labor Day, September 6.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports Virginia ranks last in the country at making "nonmonetary determinations within 21 days" - a metric of resolving flagged issues with claims within a federally recommended timeline.
From January 1, 2021, to now, the VEC made nonmonetary determinations within three weeks on just 3.3% of unemployment claims. The U.S. average is 50%, according to the Department of Labor.
Nationally, new unemployment claims rose slightly last week.
In Virginia, initial weekly claims dropped to about 12,697 – which is about four times higher than the pre-pandemic weekly average.