COLUMBIA, S.C. — For about an hour on Wednesday, the Department of Employment and Workforce answered questions virtually from employees and employers alike.
The Zoom information session was held by the Greater Irmo Chamber of Commerce and featured dozens of participants, including business and political leaders.
One of the first questions was for people who have already applied for benefits. If they missed re-certifying their claim each week, what can they do?
“Normally, in regards to certifying for a week, you can go back up to two weeks on your own. If it's further than two weeks you'd have to talk to a dedicated representative and that would be something we'd have to do for you,” said Chief of Staff Jamie Suber on the call.
Chief Legal Officer Todd Timmons also participated on the call.
He was asked what to do if your employer recently received a payroll loan, but you've already been given unemployment benefits on furlough.
“If that's the case they will not have to return any of their unemployment and if they haven't gotten the money yet they can still continue the process and hopefully we'll get to them and pay them out. They're not going to have to return any money. The only caveat to that is if the employer does something like pay them out backpay of the weeks they've missed and then continue them on with the salary continuation as well. In that case there may be a potential issue,” Timmons said.
Suber also asked people with pending claims, who do not need to provide any more information, to be patient.
“Again, there may not be anything that you can even do at that point and time, and the responsibility may be on us. And, we just have not gotten to it yet. I'll speak to some timelines and time frames. Ideally, we have up to 21 days for an individual to receive a decision in regards to eligibility. Due to the volume and the complexity of the type of claims coming into the system right now, we're trying our best to work through the volume that we have,” Suber said.
In a telling question, the two DEW officers were asked what benefits people have access to if they’re afraid to return to work.
“This is a common question and it's a difficult question. I know, especially this early in the process, people have questions about how all this is going to play out. The short answer is yes, a generalized fear is not going to be enough to not return to work,” Timmons explained.
Timmons continued, saying you would have to meet other criteria like a COVID-19 diagnosis or a quarantine or stay-home order from a doctor to continue receiving benefits.
There was some good news for newly opened businesses on the call.
“If COVID-19 has caused you to not earn anything, then just because you started in February isn't going to hold you back from eligibility I wouldn't think,” Timmons said.
However, he clarified the benefits would not extend to businesses which would not have been open or ready yet anyway.
The Department told participants on the call self-employed people should file claims after they're unable to receive earnings and take a paycheck.
In six weeks more than 400,000 people in South Carolina have filed for unemployment. New numbers for last week's claims will come out on Thursday.