CHARLESTON, W.Va. — More than 2,000 workers in West Virginia who filed for unemployment benefits under the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program will receive payments they were supposed to receive last week by this Friday.
WorkForce West Virginia acting Commissioner Scott Adkins said Wednesday approximately 2,300 eligible claimants were supposed to be paid benefits May 12-13 but a “system issue” put their accounts in a delay pattern. He said the payments to both debit cards and those with direct deposit will be made by the end of the day Friday.
Adkins said 200 of the PUA claimants who signed up for direct deposit made a mistake on their direct deposit information. He said they will receive their initial benefits by check.
“In order to prevent the possibility of future delays, everyone who signed up for direct deposit please enter the PUA system on your dashboard and verify your direct deposit information,” Adkins said.
Debit card balances can be checked at key2benefits.com.
WorkForce has cleared up another problem with the PUA program. Adkins said there’s been a message on the dashboards of some eligible claimants that says that’s been overpaid when they haven’t been paid any benefits at all. He said that problem has been remedied.
“The banner indicating the overpayment and the overpayment itself has been removed and you can complete your weekly certifications at pua.workforcewv.org,” Adkins said.
There are now more than 200,000 residents who have signed up and deemed eligible for unemployment in West Virginia under regular unemployment and three pandemic-related programs.
“WorkForce has dispersed more than $600 million since March 16,” Adkins said. “WorkForce continues to work to process claims and address various issues.”