The Louisiana Workforce Commission is being inundated with calls and wait times are very long as the 300 dollar federally boosted unemployment benefits went into effect.
Secretary Ava Dejoie says LWC received 140,000 calls in all of December but took 70,000 calls in the first week of January alone all while dealing with the new wave of COVID.
“We are all experiencing the pandemic together, and these are trying times,” said Dejoie. “Our office, like most of your offices and families have had an uptick just as our state has in COVID.”
The state has, so far, had to borrow 133 million dollars from the feds in zero-interest loans to make state unemployment payments to eligible recipients.
Dejoie recommends using the online HiIRE messaging and account system at louisianaworks.net to get info instead of calling.
“It is instinctive to perhaps want to call someone but with this volume of people that is not going to be the best way,” said Dejoie.
Despite the absolute crush of calls Dejoie says LWC still managed to pay 139,000 unemployed Louisianans nearly 41 million in federal benefits this week.
To deal with the demand Dejoie says LWC will begin working expanded hours to clear the backlog of applications piling up due to new enhanced ID requirements.
“The UI team along with other LWC staff will begin working nights and weekends beginning Monday of next week,” said Dejoie.
Those new ID requirements came into effect after Louisiana and other states were slammed with thousands of fraudulent claims from overseas scammers.
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