When the financial disruption from COVID-19 and the ensuing shutdowns started in early 2020, Colorado’s unemployment system was so overwhelmed that it struggled to deal with the flood of purposes.
The Colorado Division of Labor and Employment went from processing just below 100,000 preliminary claims in 2019 to just about 800,000 claims in 2020 and near 1 million in 2021. Compared to Colorado’s 700% spike, South Dakota skilled an almost 500% improve in preliminary claims from 2019 to 2020, whereas California noticed a 450% rise.
Colorado’s sevenfold surge within the first 12 months taxed the system a lot that it resulted in claimants reporting vital delays in receiving advantages and difficulties in getting an actual particular person on the cellphone to resolve issues with their claims.
Even because the financial system started to bounce again and the variety of claims declined, complaints in regards to the forms unemployed Coloradans should negotiate to pay their payments haven’t subsided.
Annoyed claimants report reaching out to the division a number of instances a day for weeks, whereas others misplaced observe of what number of makes an attempt they made. This has left them pissed off, emotionally drained and with none monetary support to assist themselves or their family members.
Delays in processing claims have been linked to a number of elements, together with excessive declare volumes and challenges with the labor division’s new laptop system, which has led to a backlog as a result of difficulties with ID verification.
Almost 100 folks have reached out to JHB over the previous few months to share their experiences and considerations in regards to the system. Some finally obtained their cash whereas others have thrown within the towel.
Complaints have been lodged with the lawyer basic and the governor’s workplace, with one particular person even suing the labor division over lacking unemployment advantages and one other over integrity holds.
Broomfield resident Misha McGinley, 53, misplaced her job in October 2024 and utilized for unemployment instantly, unaware of the difficulty she was about to face.
“There is no such thing as a different enterprise on this world that might operate just like the Colorado Division of Labor and nonetheless be in enterprise had it not been a authorities company,” she mentioned.
Although the quantity of claims the CDLE is coping with has dropped from the highs in the beginning of the pandemic, they’ve stayed nicely above the place they have been earlier than.
“Our declare masses week over week are working someplace round 7 to eight% larger than they have been simply pre-pandemic in 2019,” mentioned Phil Spesshardt, director of CDLE’s Unemployment Insurance coverage Division.
Preliminary claims have remained above pre-pandemic ranges, with greater than 150,000 claims recorded in 2024.
In 2024, the division paid over $850 million in advantages and about 206,160 calls have been answered.
In January of this 12 months, the unemployment name heart answered about 16,175 calls, paid $73 million in advantages and the digital agent, which helps claimants on the cellphone and the online, responded to greater than 10,000 webchats and helped over 60,000 callers.
“For context, on common we’re seeing 2,000 to 4,000 preliminary claims, 30,000 continued claims and paying $17.5 million in advantages every week,” in keeping with an electronic mail from CDLE despatched to The Publish.
After a 12 months of working as a faculty nurse, Penelope Eppling, 52, utilized for unemployment advantages after dropping her job in September 2024.
Eppling waited, however the advantages by no means got here.
She obtained no additional communication from CDLE, so she checked on her declare – it had been closed.
Annoyed, she reached out to the division, solely to face one other problem — getting in contact with a dwell particular person.
“You name and it says that they’re too busy, or like, you get the identical voicemail after which you’ll be able to’t go away a message, so that you don’t have any individual to individual entry,” she mentioned.
Eppling tried to get her advantages backdated however was informed she needed to submit an enchantment. Nonetheless, as soon as she did, she by no means heard again.
“I’ve utterly misplaced my belief in the entire unemployment course of proper now,” she mentioned.
Diminishing federal funding
Along with excessive declare volumes and points with a brand new laptop system, the state labor division mentioned it’s going through challenges due to more and more complicated fraud schemes that complicate investigations, delays in fact-finding and the lack of federal funding supplied in the course of the pandemic.
Spesshardt mentioned CDLE has over 500 workers who work inside the unemployment division, with 80 staff who truly course of unemployment insurance coverage claims.
“Sadly, the funding that we obtain at a federal stage continues to decrease, which makes it more durable and more durable to truly improve the staffing that we might have,” he mentioned.
“We take a look at 12 months over 12 months, incoming declare quantity, incoming subject quantity, to find out what our wants are. And so when we have now the supply on funding, then what we do is we glance to (improve) employees as mandatory in these areas.”
Spesshardt mentioned federal rules restrict how a lot they will do with know-how to hurry up the processing of claims.
The state’s January 2025 unemployment charge was 4.7%, larger than the U.S. charge of 4.0%, in keeping with knowledge produced by the Colorado Labor Division and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Colorado, together with Alaska, ranked forty fourth out of fifty states and the District of Columbia for having a excessive unemployment charge, in keeping with preliminary knowledge from BLS. Nevada had the best at 5.8%, with South Dakota having the bottom charge at 1.9%.
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Eppling, a single mom, went two months with out pay.
She needed to faucet into her retirement financial savings and borrow cash from her mom simply to assist pay for primary requirements and dwelling bills.
“I really feel that it was very scary. It put loads on me and my daughter.”
By Nov. 11, 2024, Eppling had discovered a brand new job however had nonetheless not obtained any fee from unemployment.
The next month, she obtained a letter letting her know she was denied advantages however was informed she had $794 left to gather.
She by no means obtained any cash.
McGinley, the Broomfield resident who misplaced her job in October 2024, utilized for unemployment instantly.
McGinley mentioned she skilled a three-month delay in advantages. She reached out to the division greater than 75 instances throughout that interval, all with out success.
Her common name time was 5 minutes and 30 seconds earlier than she bought disconnected.
“It’s unimaginable to succeed in a dwell particular person,” she mentioned.
“Once I did they mentioned they might not inform me why it’s delayed nevertheless it’s in adjudication. They couldn’t say extra and I needed to be affected person.”
McGinley had simply sufficient in her financial savings to get by however towards the top of the three months, she started to panic, fearing she must put her mortgage and automobile fee on a bank card.
When she was in a position to communicate with an unemployment consultant, she was informed solely foreclosures or automobile repossession expedites claims.
She defined that whereas neither of these conditions utilized, not receiving her advantages would affect her skill to make funds the next month.
“They mentioned it doesn’t matter,” McGinley mentioned.
“They solely expedite your declare if you have already got misplaced your automobile or within the strategy of dropping your automobile or your own home.”
Going by way of the method
Unemployment insurance coverage claims are processed by some extent system. There are 225 factors of eligibility that may very well be thought of earlier than advantages are awarded.
Along with the explanations for job loss, earlier than a profit is awarded, Spesshardt mentioned the division should evaluation all wages earned from all employers within the final 18 months to find out financial eligibility.
Unemployment profit claims take 4 to 6 weeks to course of.
“As of January, roughly 70% of claims have been processed inside three weeks. This is a rise from 40% one 12 months in the past,” Spesshardt mentioned.
He mentioned the advance got here from ongoing adjustments primarily based on suggestions from employees and claimant focus teams over the previous few months.
“Events turn into irritated as a result of they will’t communicate to a human and they’re deflected to our digital assistant at this time limit. The digital assistant, at this time limit, is considerably restricted within the data it will possibly present,” Spesshardt mentioned.
Spesshardt mentioned the purpose is to finally modernize the digital assistant so it will possibly confirm people and provides them detailed details about their claims. Because of this, the necessity for extra human employees to deal with claims must be decreased.
Different enhancements the division plans this 12 months embody hiring 25 name heart brokers, rolling out a Spanish model of MyUI+, textual content message reminders to claimants for incomplete actions, extra automation the place applicable and a name heart improve.
“It’s additionally vital for folks to grasp this program is funded completely by employers within the state of Colorado,” he mentioned.
Employers pay federal unemployment taxes, that are despatched to Washington D.C., and a portion is returned yearly to assist handle the fund and make choices.
Many individuals are underneath the impression that their common tax {dollars} are masking this value, which isn’t the case, in keeping with Spesshardt.
“That is an eligibility program. Proper. It’s not free cash, it’s not an entitlement program,” Spesshardt mentioned.
One other issue placing stress on the division is an increase in claims from federal staff laid off due to the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), led by President Donald Trump’s adviser Elon Musk.
The transfer seeks to scale back the federal workforce to considerably reduce spending and restructure authorities priorities.
The rise in claims from laid-off federal staff has led the division to implement a number of measures to handle the rise, together with a particular queue inside their name heart, a devoted federal claims workforce, a devoted web page on their web site with a number of sources and on-site assist for former federal staff at workforce facilities statewide.
There are roughly 57,000 federal staff in Colorado and Spesshardt mentioned that of the roughly 3,000 new claims obtained every week, about 5% to 7% come from people who have been laid off due to present points within the federal authorities.
“Who do you go to?”
Forty-nine-year-old Jason Miller has been ready for greater than six weeks for the division of labor to subject his unemployment declare funds, which he filed for in early January of this 12 months.
Miller, a father of three, had beforehand labored as a basic supervisor for a automobile dealership in Meeker, earlier than he moved to Spokane, Wash., for a brand new job.
Nonetheless, he was let go after two months due to worker turnover and was suggested to file with Colorado’s unemployment workplace.
He described reaching out to the workplace as “irritating,” “inefficient” and “disappointing.”
“I’ve had the quantity on my cellphone able to hit ship at 7:59 watching my cellular phone, as a result of should you wait till 8:30, it’s generally unimaginable to get by way of to anyone,” Miller mentioned.
“There was quite a lot of anxiousness, of like, I want to speak to anyone as we speak as a result of I’ve bought payments due, my children, you realize, we’ve bought to pay for groceries.”
Miller mentioned when he was lastly in a position to communicate with a dwell consultant, he was informed that if he was liable to eviction or automobile repossession, his case could be prioritized.
Regardless of sending his landlord’s eviction discover a number of instances and submitting all the mandatory paperwork, Miller mentioned nothing was expedited.
As a substitute, an integrity maintain was positioned on his account, inflicting additional delays. Because of this, Miller submitted an enchantment and remains to be ready for a decision.
“The irritating factor is, who do you go to?”
Miller additionally sought assist by submitting a criticism to Colorado Lawyer Normal Phil Weiser, whereas round 23 different candidates who contacted The Publish reached out to the governor’s workplace.
The governor’s workplace accepts calls about points with both employee’s compensation or unemployment, in keeping with their web site. All data obtained is referred to CDLE.
“The governor’s workplace works with Coloradans on quite a lot of points and connects them with the sources they should entry advantages, discover solutions, or join with the suitable businesses or authorities workplaces, together with supporting individuals who come to us with excellent unemployment insurance coverage claims,” mentioned Eric Maruyama, a spokesperson for Gov. Jared Polis, in an electronic mail response to The Publish when requested in regards to the delays and considerations raised by Coloradans.
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