Justice says unemployment filing problems, backlog “unacceptable”

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice said Friday he’s willing to put additional resources toward eliminating the backlog of unemployment claims filed in connection with massive layoffs from the coronavirus.

Gov. Jim Justice

Justice called problems residents are having filing their claims on the WorkForce West Virginia website “unacceptable.”

“If you’re sitting at home and you’ve made a claim on unemployment and you are scared to death about what is going on–that’s not acceptable to me. It’s just not,” Justice said during his media briefing at the state capitol.

More than 90,000 workers have filed for claims in just more than two weeks. Many have had problems logging on to the WorkForce West Virginia website because of the volume of claims. The backlog is believed to be three to four days.

The National Guard is helping work on solutions. Guard members are being trained to assist with the cases and workers from the state Division of Rehabilitation Services will also be trained. Justice said he’ll add more workers if necessary.

MORE Guard, other workers helping to process unemployment claims

“I don’t care if we’ve got to put 150 more people on it to be able to get it done,” he said. “I mean what I say in the fact that I’ll go back and pound the sand that much harder to see if there’s some way some how we can break this backlog.”

The state usually gets anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 new claims a month but numbers for March passed 90,000.

WorkForce West Virginia crews have been working 12 hours a day six days a week to try and process the claims. Justice said they can’t stop.

“I commend everybody for all their work. I thank them from the bottom of my heart but I’ll tell you we can’t quit running until this is over,” Justice said.





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