Jobless payments might set record

Jobless benefit payments to Oklahoma residents are likely to reach record levels this week, the director of the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission's unemployment insurance division said Tuesday.

"We are already at $7.6 million," said Jerry Pectol. "I expect this week we'll go over $8 million."

Pectol said he believes that will be the most Oklahoma has ever paid out in unemployment benefits.

"We had back-to-back recessions in the 1980s when the number of claims may have been higher, but we pay more now," Pectol said.

Both the maximum weekly benefit and number of weeks it can be claimed have recently increased.

For claims filed after Jan. 1, the maximum benefit increased from $392 to $409. In late 2008, Congress extended maximum eligibility from 26 to 39 weeks.

The increase in calls to the division has jammed phone lines and caused the hiring of additional employees and technology upgrades. For a while, case workers were moved to another building because even outgoing phone lines were clogged.

"Starting with November, every week has gotten bigger in terms of both claims filed and checks paid," Pectol said. "And it's not like they're small increases, either."

At the same time the volume of claims was increasing, the Employment Security Commission implemented a program shifting payments to automatic bank deposits and debit cards.

Snags in that transition caused late or missing payments for many unemployment recipients.

Pectol said those problems have been largely solved, but the call center continues to be swamped.

"We've added 13 people, and we'll probably have to add at least twice as many as that," he said, noting that waits of as long as two hours on hold are still common.

Although additional phone lines are being added, Pectol said he expects the situation to get worse before it gets better.

"I don't know how many people are trying to get through and give up because they get a busy signal," he said.

With more lines coming on line next week, Pectol said, those callers will go on hold.

"The week after next, I expect the wait times to go up," he said.

The Tulsa metro area unemployment rate rose from 4.2 percent in November to 4.6 percent in December, it was announced late Tuesday.

Although Oklahoma's unemployment insurance program is administered by the state, it is funded entirely by the federal government and by premiums paid by employers.

Randy Krehbiel 581-8365
randy.krehbiel@tulsaworld.com

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Jobless payments might set record

Official says the state could pay out $8 million this week.

Jobless benefit payments to Oklahoma residents are likely to reach record levels this week, the director of the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission's unemployment insurance division said Tuesday.

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