Benefits Paid to 97% of Eligible Workers as Michigan UIA Continues to Eliminate Backlog July 6, 2020

LANSING, MICH. Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency has met its goal to make a determination on all currently eligible, certifying unpaid claims that were filed before May 1. The agency will continue to clear out its remaining backlog and make a determination on all unpaid claims filed prior to June 1 by July 20.

Paying Claims

Since March 15, around 2.1 million eligible claimants have applied for state and federal benefits, with over $15 billion in benefits paid to more than 2 million workers. In addition, 97.2% of potentially eligible, certifying claimants have received or are approved for benefits. Of the remaining unpaid claimants, most are flagged for potential impostor fraud. Currently, less than 39,000 unpaid claims have yet to be resolved and are being held for additional identity verification while only around 20,000 unpaid claims are held pending adjudication for other reasons.

“The UIA remains committed to quickly processing claims. While there is only small percentage of eligible workers who have yet to be paid, we know that is no consolation to the thousands of claimants who are frustrated, desperate and owed the benefits they were promised,” said UIA Director Steve Gray. “We will not rest until the claims backlog is eliminated and all eligible Michigan workers get every single dollar they are entitled to.”

Eliminating Claims Backlog 

For workers who applied prior to June 1 and are still awaiting a decision on eligibility, the UIA will pay out benefits, determine that the claimant is ineligible and communicate why, or deem the claimant unreachable after multiple attempts to make contact. This includes the roughly 30,000 unpaid claimants who filed before June 1, who represent just over 1% of all claims filed. The UIA will complete this goal by July 20.

Processing Legitimate Claims Of the claims held to prevent potential imposter fraud, the UIA has resolved around 285,000 out of over 340,000 active accounts with benefits resuming for legitimate claimants. The agency has also resolved over 160,000 of the more than 200,000 new claims that were held, with benefits now starting for legitimate claimants.  

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