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As leaders eye changes to the state's unemployment system, there's lots of potential to hurt West
As leaders eye changes to the state’s unemployment system, there’s lots of potential to hurt West VirginiansWhen the pandemic hit West Virginia in the spring of 2020, the symptoms were immediate, even before cases and deaths were close to their peak: Shutdowns and public health concerns forced thousands of state residents out of their jobs.
Continued unemployment claims skyrocketed from fewer than 15,000 to more than 146,000 within a handful of weeks. Even as claims began trending down, new federal unemployment programs were introduced that the state had never worked with before.
“The load was just beyond anything we would have ever imagined was possible,” WorkForce West Virginia Deputy Director Jeff Green told lawmakers last month.
The result, according to a recent audit, was tens of millions of dollars in fraud and significant delays in sending unemployment aid to West Virginians.
Read more: https://mountainstatespotlight.org/2022/01/07/wv-unemployment-system-potential-to-hurt-west-virginians/