Department of Labor tweaking site for more 1-on-1 engagement

Since mid-March, Georgia’s Department of Labor has had to reinvent itself. Getting benefits to a record number of unemployment applicants in a short period of time has been monumental. But now they are ready to focus on individual cases. 

Here’s an example of a tricky case from the labor commissioner: You’ve worked for a company for a few years, but you are denied unemployment benefits because it shows you don’t have enough wages. Well you know that's not the case, so here's the mistake. 

“A lot of what we are finding is that their claim was done correctly; however, in the past when their employer reported their wages to us, their social security number may have had two numbers that were switched. It just didn’t get reported under their social security number. It got reported somewhere else,” Commissioner Mark Butler told FOX 5's Dana Fowle in an interview. 

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Here’s a list of issues and ways to fix them.  

  1. ZERO WAGES: Go back over old W-2s and make sure the information like your social security number and your birth date are correct. If not, this causes a delay. 
  2. ONLY ONE CHECK: You got one unemployment check then they stopped coming. It’s most likely a problem on the employer’s end. Butler says the boss is filing weekly on your behalf but didn’t change the date of submission. So the computer thinks she’s filing the same claim over and over again.
  3. PIN ISSUES: If your PIN isn’t working, don’t keep re-entering it. It’s probably wrong, you’ll get locked out: PIN RESET.
  4. WAY2GO DEBIT CARD: Don’t call the debit card company with questions about your claim. They’re a third party group. They don’t have an answer for you. 

Finally, the software is being updated so that you can recertify previous weeks' claims to fix errors. Give that a minute. 

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