The long-awaited implementation of federal unemployment benefits for those who have exhausted all other options now has a start date of February 22, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment announced on Sunday.
“We know that many Coloradans are currently experiencing extreme economic difficulties and have been looking forward to the possibility of claiming these additional benefits,” Joe Barela, executive director of the Department of Labor, said in a written statement. “The gradual implementation of the program has been frustrating for many, however, our priority has been to get the benefits in the hands of the majority of qualified applicants that we could reach at once.”
The beleaguered state agency has been criticized for weeks for the time it takes for unemployed coloradans to apply for benefits made available by the Continuing Assistance Act, passed on December 27.
But the state has long warned that it could take up to 10 weeks to reprogram its computer system before the additional benefits can be distributed to everyone’s account. The state also spent the first week of January revising its old computer system, a process that was postponed in April.
The weeks of waiting have left hundreds of thousands of unemployed people angry and frustrated, unable to pay bills and rent. On Monday, some 230,000 coloradanos were finally able to reopen their accounts and request a payment for the first time since the benefits ended on December 26, when the CARES Act expired. But that group included only those who had benefits left on December 26. It also included at least 70,000 regular unemployed people, whose accounts automatically received the $ 300 per week bonus retroactive to December 27.
A second group, known as Phase 2, includes those who have exhausted Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC). On Thursday, labor officials said Phase 2 may not start until “the end of the month”, or two months after federal lawmakers approved the new aid plan.
Both programs will extend the weeks of eligible unemployment for another 11 weeks. People also qualify for an extra $ 300 per week for each week between December 27th and March 13th, as long as they are entitled to at least $ 1 of unemployment insurance.
The Phase 2 group also includes those who enroll for the first time in the PUA, which is available to temporary and self-employed workers. PEUC benefits are available to those people who have used all of their regular state unemployment benefits.
MORE: What’s Working: What We Learned After a Week in Colorado Paying Pandemic Unemployment Benefits
The first phase of unemployment insurance had problems, such as users who were suddenly overwhelmed with undue payments, withholdings and refusals of payment. State officials said they worked with Deloitte, a software vendor in the labor department, to fix problems overnight or in a few days.
“We may have some problems to resolve, but our new modernized cloud-based system will allow for much faster implementation of future pandemic assistance legislation that we hope to come from the new administration,” said Barela.
The Labor Department said it will notify eligible persons in Phase 2 “in the coming weeks” about how to reopen their claims.
The state employment agency said that since February 1, more than 104,000 people have received more than $ 166 million in benefits as part of Phase 1.
Read more Colorado Sun stories about unemployment.
