Virginia’s poor unemployment processing yields class-action lawsuit

(The Center Square) – Virginia’s failure to adequately process the uptick in unemployment claims during the COVID-19 pandemic has yielded a class-action lawsuit spearheaded by several groups.

The commonwealth ranked dead last in the country for processing unemployment claims and is progressively getting worse. The Virginia unemployment commission has been failing to decide nonmonetary eligibility issues on time in 95% of cases. Although state law requires this to be completed within three weeks, nearly all of the claims were taking 10 weeks to complete. Some claims were taking much longer.

Some of the groups launching the lawsuit include the Virginia Poverty Law Center and the Legal Aid Justice Center. In a news release, the groups acknowledged the initial uptick may have surprised the VEC, but the commonwealth is now a full year into the pandemic and many eligible Virginians have been unable to receive federal and state money in a timely manner despite the state being awarded $38 million in federal money to bolster its pandemic unemployment response.

“After getting cut off benefits, I became homeless for roughly four months,” Lenita Gibson, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “I have no income now, other than food stamps. I have a roof over my head again, for now, only through temporary assistance from rent relief programs. The financial loss has been tremendous, and emotionally you are just a wreck. It’s been horrible. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be treated like this. It doesn’t make any sense.

Virginia’s failure to process unemployment benefits has also received criticism from conservative groups. Stephen Haner, a senior fellow for state and local tax policy at the free-market Thomas Jefferson Institute, called the situation “a fiasco.”

“The agency’s level of incompetence has been equaled only by the indifference displayed by the state’s leadership and the state media’s silence,” Haner said.

Unemployment numbers increased substantially at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic because of economic restrictions and some people voluntarily choosing to avoid other people. Although the restrictions have been eased, the state still has restrictive policies in place and has not fully recovered from its unemployment uptick.

In the commonwealth, there is still a midnight curfew on dining in at restaurants, a requirement that tables be six feet apart, a mask mandate and strict limits on social gatherings at events.

The Northam administration did not respond to a request for comment.

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