Illinois will start processing unemployment benefits for gig workers next week
The state will start processing claims for gig workers and others not eligible for traditional unemployment payments on Monday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said during his daily news briefing in Chicago on Thursday.
The pandemic unemployment assistance, or PUA, program will provide up to 39 weeks of payments backdated to the first week of unemployment.
The state’s website will be able to process more than 140,000 applications per hour for independent contractors, sole proprietors, self-employed individuals and “many others who don’t qualify for traditional unemployment,” Pritzker said.
The governor first announced in mid-April those workers would start receiving payments as soon as early May. Anyone wanting to file a claim does not have to wait until Monday and can do so on the Illinois Department of Employment Services website at www2.illinois.gov/ides/.
Workers should expect to get denied for regular unemployment insurance before they can apply for the PUA program, Pritzker said, because the federal government requires it.
“That denial for regular unemployment benefits is a mandatory first step in determining PUA eligibility, according to the federal government,” Pritzker said.
The state has started to control the “avalanche” of unemployment claims filed since the coronavirus pandemic hit Illinois, the governor added.
The governor’s administration has been fielding fierce criticism over an overwhelmed unemployment benefit systems. Applicants struggled to reach call center agents, ran into technical difficulty in applying online and experienced payment delays.
Pritzker said a new call center is “up and running” and will have 100 new agents working by Monday with an additional 100 workers to come later. He also announced an executive order that will allow the state to bypass the one-week delay before issuing the unemployed their first checks.
More than 74,476 Illinoisans filed for unemployment in the week ending May 2, and the state has processed more than 1 million unemployment benefit applications since March 1, Pritkzer said.
In the first four months of 2020, Illinois paid out more than $2 billion in unemployment claims, $500 million more than the state paid out in all of 2019.
“The pain and devastation for people who lost their jobs is heartbreaking,” Pritkzer said.
In the meantime, area Republicans criticized the governor’s five-phase, regional reopening plan, saying the General Assembly should return to Springfield to weigh in.
The plan does not address the concerns of financially hurting Illinoisans, said state Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, calling the plan, “a baseless year-long, modified stay-at-home order with almost zero accountability or transparency.”
On Wednesday, 17,783 tests were completed statewide with 2,641 tests coming back positive, or a 15% positivity rate. Public health officials reported 2,641 new COVID-19 cases Thursday and 138 additional deaths for a total of 70,873 cases and 3,111 fatalities statewide.
SOUTHWESTERN ILLINOIS CORONAVIRUS CASES AS OF WEDNESDAY
Here’s a breakdown of the 1,520 COVID-19 cases in southwestern Illinois as of Wednesday. These numbers are updated by 4 p.m. daily at BND.com.
- St. Clair: 621 positives, 53 deaths, 2,705 tests administered, 45 tests pending
- Madison: 389 positives, 28 deaths, 79 hospitalizations, 116 recoveries
- Clinton: 116 positives, eight deaths, 570 tests administered, 20 recoveries
- Randolph: 205 positives, two deaths, 89 recoveries
- Monroe: 76 positives, 11 deaths
- Macoupin: 38 positives, one death, 758 tests administered, 14 tests pending, 28 recoveries
- Perry: 32 positives
- Jersey: 16 positives, one death, nine recoveries
- Washington: 14 positives, nine recoveries
- Bond: Eight positives, one death, 140 tests administered, six tests pending, three recoveries
- Calhoun: One positive, one recovery
