West Central Michigan News

Rep. Jack O’Malley (R-Lake Ann) recently heard from the state’s Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) as Michigan continues to feel the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a release by Michigan House Republicans.

The Joint Select Committee on the COVID-19 Pandemic, of which O’Malley is a member, heard from UIA Director Steve Gray that, as of Sept. 3, the agency still had a backlog of 200,000 cases, which still need to be resolved. And of this number, there were 14,000 people who had yet to receive any payments for their claims and many more who have only received partial payments.

“I understand people at UIA are working hard. Director Gray told us that they have 1 million active unemployment cases. That’s a lot of cases,” O’Malley said, according to Michigan House Republicans. “But people also expect state government to work effectively and efficiently for them. It’s difficult to hear from people who had been without needed payments for 10 or 12 weeks, or people who continue to be without these payments into a third or fourth month. We need some accountability to ensure UIA is following through on what they say they are implementing -- because some people are just still not seeing it.”

Rep. Jack O'Malley | Michigan House Republicans

O’Malley disputed UIA’s claims that they had cleared everyone with claims prior to July and that they had made every attempt to reach them.

“I have two people in my office -- compared to the many, many people working at UIA -- and we were able to call and get in touch with 11 people in my district who all answered and all had outstanding claims from prior to July,” O’Malley said, according to Michigan House Republicans. “Just in the four counties I represent, Sheila has been waiting 24 weeks for her benefits. Pam has been waiting 18 weeks. Chris was paid for roughly three months' unemployment but now has been told he has to pay it all back. Joseph has talked with someone at UIA but has not received benefits after 13 weeks. I don’t know what I would do going on 24 weeks without income. These are real people who are struggling, and they have not gotten their situations resolved by the agency.”

O’Malley said that he feels the software that the agency used in responding to the surge in claims has contributed to the problem. Gray testified before the committee that some aspects of the software could be contributing to continued outstanding claims.

“It’s crazy that a simple mistake when filling out a form online -- especially in a high-stress time like this when mistakes are more likely to be made -- could land you in this purgatory for two or three months without a resolution,” O’Malley told Michigan House Republicans. “People need these benefits to pay the bills and put food on the table. It’s disheartening to hear the agency report that a sizeable amount of cases still needs to be resolved, because a 'case' is a dressed-up word for a person out there struggling to get by.”