But identity theft has now become a problem for PUA systems across the country, with scammers submitting millions of applications using others’ personal information. we will notify you thatfiles have been received at the time of review. Help us deliver the latest daily reporting and analysis on news, politics, culture and food in Arkansas. That number is almost a quarter of the total, and twice as many as the agency said were under review on Aug. 4. (Canine infections are now thought to be extremely rare.). She’s now working a janitorial job and is trying to rebuild her dog-walking business. Instead, Socarro said, she was told to wait for another call. 16-20. Calkins said DWS began using “algorithms” over the summer to help identify suspicious PUA claims that require further investigation. This reporting is courtesy of the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network, an independent, nonpartisan news project dedicated to producing journalism that matters to Arkansans. 26.7k members in the Arkansas community. Find out more about ANNN and how your support is vital to our mission. The company he worked for shut its doors in March, he said, but soon after he applied for PUA, his account was placed under review by DWS. “There’s a number of reasons an account can be flagged, and we don’t call them fraudulent claims until a full, due-process investigation has been done,” she said in a phone call. Applicants with locked PUA claims should be able to unlock their accounts once they receive a letter in the mail instructing them to verify their ID in person at a workforce center, Calkins said. The state has offered little help. Make sure you include all documentation in a single email if possible in order to expedite the review. “There were thousands of people, and it was just, poof, too bad for you, we’re not telling you squat. Socarro explained that she earned all of her income in Arkansas and filed her taxes in Arkansas. LITTLE ROCK, Ark.- Arkansas Secretary of Commerce Mike Preston announced Tuesday approximately 27,000 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and 10,000 unemployment insurance claims are on hold due to potential fraud. The state was slower to roll out the program than many others, in part because its computer system for processing regular unemployment claims lacked the capacity to handle the new program. Marion Marketing Global. The Temporary Claims Processing Hotline can be reached at 1 -844-908-2178 or 501-534-6304. Supporting the Arkansas Times' independent journalism is more vital than ever. why is my arkansas pua account locked for review. “And I have already lost every single thing I had.”, Robyn Socarro, 47, runs a dog-walking service in Benton County and lives just across the state line in Pineville, Mo. But in mid-June, the money stopped without explanation and her PUA account was locked for review. Calkins said DWS began using “algorithms” over the summer to help identify suspicious PUA claims that require further investigation. After months of making calls and leaving unreturned messages, Youngblood said, he has gotten no help from the state. Home; Creative. (By that point, the weekly federal bonus payments had decreased from $600 to $300.) ### About the Arkansas Division of Workforce Services: In Arkansas, Governor Hutchinson received a letter this summer notifying him he had applied for assistance, as did Rep. Fred Love (D-Little Rock), the minority leader in the state House of Representatives. They want you to give up that’s why they never answer your calls or have you waiting til your phone battery dies. Call 1-855-225-4440. After repeated phone calls, she’s still unsure why. Then, unexpectedly, Socarro received a call from a woman at DWS who demanded to know why she’d applied for unemployment in Arkansas when she lived in Missouri. The state was slower to roll out the program than many others, in part because its computer system for processing regular unemployment claims lacked the capacity to handle the new program. pua.arkansas.gov. In Arkansas, Governor Hutchinson received a letter this summer notifying him he had applied for assistance, as did Rep. Fred Love (D-Little Rock), the minority leader in the state House of Representatives. On Dec. 27. (By that point, the weekly federal bonus payments had decreased from $600 to $300.) I can just eat more beans right now,” she said. Unemployment benefits are available in Arkansas to employees who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. A: Once you have been determined eligible for PUA benefits, you can log into the PUA system to claim your all of your retroactive weeks of unemployment. Navigation. The Times was notified of the vulnerability by an out-of-work software programmer who was applying for assistance. With Liam Hemsworth, Jacob Zachar, Patrick Muldoon, Clark Duke. A DWS official told the state legislature in September it had found no evidence of fraud connected to the incident, though an FBI investigation is ongoing. Her business plummeted in March and April as her clients began working from home, cutting back on expenses and taking safety precautions. Protech Solutions is now the subject of a class action lawsuit by PUA applicants who say the company’s negligence exposed them to possible identity theft and delayed their receipt of benefits. Yet over 54,000 of those PUA claims had been flagged for internal review by Arkansas DWS as of Oct. 13, according to spokeswoman Zoë Calkins. Yet over 54,000 of those PUA claims had been flagged for internal review by Arkansas DWS as of October 13, according to spokeswoman Zoë Calkins. She’s tried to challenge the denial but has been told the appeals process is at a standstill due to a backlog at the Arkansas Appeal Tribunal. Y’all figure out for yourself how you’re gonna live. After months of making calls and leaving unreturned messages, Youngblood said, he has gotten no help from the state. At last, a letter arrived from DWS telling her to show up in person at a workforce services office and verify her identity. Feb 20 No Comments why is my pua flagged for review arkansas Then, unexpectedly, Socarro received a call from a woman at DWS who demanded to know why she’d applied for unemployment in Arkansas when she lived in Missouri. Though she thinks she’s still owed partial payments for July, she’s not going to press the issue. Yet over 54,000 of those PUA claims had been flagged for internal review by Arkansas DWS as of Oct. 13, according to spokeswoman Zoë Calkins. Yet over 54,000 of those PUA claims had been flagged for internal review by Arkansas DWS as of Oct. 13, according to spokeswoman Zoë Calkins. “Just forget it. A flagged claim remains frozen until the review is complete, which can leave applicants in limbo for weeks or months. Arkansans started filing PUA claims on May 1, but a glitch caused some 5,700 applicants’ documents to be lost the first week the system was online. “There were thousands of people, and it was just, poof, too bad for you, we’re not telling you squat. The DWS worker accepted the explanation — but did not unlock her account. Instead, Socarro said, she was told to wait for another call. To learn more about the eligibility requirements, or to file your application for PUA benefits, please go to www.arunemployment.com or call 1-844-908-2178 between the hours of 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. Central Standard Time (CST). But when a deal goes horribly wrong, the consequences are deadly. But Towne, 51, couldn’t find work anywhere in Marion County that spring, as businesses closed their doors and laid off workers in response to the coronavirus pandemic. A DWS official told the state legislature in September it had found no evidence of fraud connected to the incident, though an FBI investigation is ongoing. 2020, the stimulus bill renewed PUA, originally set to expire Dec. 26, 2020. Coronavirus today: Looks like a new record, 1,337 new cases, Today’s news and the open line: A record virus day and lots of election stuff. upload . California was so overwhelmed with fraudulent claims that it recently stopped accepting new applications for two weeks. By mid-July, she’d given up on PUA and was piecing together cleaning and dog-sitting gigs as best she could. I can just eat more beans right now,” she said. Her business plummeted in March and April as her clients began working from home, cutting back on expenses and taking safety precautions. The PUA program, which was created by Congress as part of the CARES Act, has provided an economic lifeline for tens of thousands of households in Arkansas. “I’ve been so lost and confused.”, “I think they’re doing all of this so they don’t have to pay this money out,” she said. “I can’t even get anyone to help try to fix it,” Towne said. In September, Socarro finally received her PUA money for June. But she declined to provide details about where the algorithms originated, saying only that they were developed through “a combined effort coordinated across internal and external entities.”, Calkins said in an email that DWS does not keep track of how many flagged claims have been confirmed to be fraudulent or how many have been cleared and released since the program began in May. On April 27, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued its latest guidance to state unemployment agencies regarding the application of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) to impacted individuals in Unemployment Insurance Program Letter No. When asked what type of situations might result in a claim being flagged, Calkins said the agency is “not sharing this information for security purposes.”. Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) is a program under the CARES Act. It means your report is put in limbo, does not process or pay anything owed until you contact EI to explain what that other income is. submit documents one of three ways: when you apply for pua, you will need to submit documents such as your 2019 federal tax return, 1099 forms, misc. Share. But Towne, 51, couldn’t find work anywhere in Marion County that spring, as businesses closed their doors and laid off workers in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The company he worked for shut its doors in March, he said, but soon after he applied for PUA, his account was placed under review by DWS. In contrast, a PUA claim filed by an independent contractor or self-employed person does not involve an employer. They don’t want to pay so they have you jumping thru hoops, and they don’t care if you lose everything. Founded in 1974, the Arkansas Times is a lively, opinionated source for news, politics and culture in Arkansas. Then, on May 15, the Arkansas Times published a story calling attention to a security flaw in the new web portal that left thousands of applicants’ personal information exposed, including Social Security numbers and bank account numbers. PUA is the federal stimulus of 600$ for gig/self employed workers. Thousands of unemployment claims remain locked by the state, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Race and policing become election flashpoints in a diversifying Springdale, When falling behind on rent leads to jail time, Bill aims to repeal Arkansas’s unique ‘criminal eviction’ law, COVID vaccinations lag in minority communities, state data shows, Almost half of Arkansans age 70-plus have received first COVID shot, state says, ‘It’s dog food compared to human life’: Inside a small-town manufacturer struggling with COVID-19. “There’s a number of reasons an account can be flagged, and we don’t call them fraudulent claims until a full, due-process investigation has been done,” she said in a phone call. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date. Socarro explained that she earned all of her income in Arkansas and filed her taxes in Arkansas. She said she’s received conflicting explanations from DWS. What does under review mean for EI? Arkansans started filing PUA claims on May 1, but a glitch caused some 5,700 applicants’ documents to be lost the first week the system was online. This is not surprising since may gig workers and contractors don’t have standard unemployment documentation and so … Since July, the agency has trained 100 additional staff statewide to handle identity verification for locked claims, and it held seven “PUA Authentication events” in August in an attempt to resolve issues for large numbers of people. I can understand having some problems, but I don’t understand their lack of communication.”. Find more information in the CARES Act Extension FAQs. www.ezarc.adws.arkansas.gov. Thousands of unemployment claims remain locked by state. A Temporary Claims Processing Hotline is available for affected workers who require assistance in filing their unemployment claims. Talent Search; What We Do; Are We For You Her claims for April, May, June and July were denied by the Arkansas Division of Workforce Services. Claiming benefits for weeks in which you were not unemployed could result in the assessment of a fraud determination which carries civil and possible criminal penalties. In September, Socarro finally received her PUA money for June. As DWS attempts to weed out fake claims, however, thousands of real Arkansans have been left stranded. Applicants with locked PUA claims should be able to unlock their accounts once they receive a letter in the mail instructing them to verify their ID in person at a workforce center, Calkins said. Well over 400,000 claims for fraud have been flagged in the PUA system, and about 5,000 were found to be legitimate after review. apply at . and apply online. One worker told her the problem was that her tax prep job was seasonal and the April 15 layoff had been scheduled in advance. Later, she was told that she shouldn’t have chosen “other” on a question asking applicants to select a reason why they were applying for PUA. Benji Hardy is a contributing editor to the Arkansas Times and a reporter for the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network. This subreddit is intended to serve as a centralized communications hub for the state of Arkansas to … 2. When Rebecca Towne was laid off April 15 from her job as a tax preparer for Jackson Hewitt, she figured she would find another job. The PUA program accounts for almost half of the total recipients collecting benefits. In those early months of the pandemic, it was unclear whether dogs could spread the novel coronavirus. Another month passed before she received an email asking for her previous year’s tax return and other financial information, which she provided. Inside ARHOME, the state’s new vision for Medicaid expansion. One of … This program was created under the CARES act of 2020 to help people financially across the state, who lost their job, but didn’t qualify for the initial unemployment program. She’s tried to challenge the denial but has been told the appeals process is at a standstill due to a backlog at the Arkansas Appeal Tribunal. Just a guess here, but I suspect they are manually reviewing the file to make sure it is legitimate. I have also not asked other people to flag the reviews, this should be a single user reporting these reviews, but I have no idea if other people or even the business owner has flagged these. Y’all figure out for yourself how you’re gonna live. Fraud checks or additional document verification where many UI applications are being flagged has also been cited as a big reason for PUA delays/rejections. As of October, Towne had received a grand total of just $780 in benefits, for two weeks in August. Socarro applied for PUA in May and initially received several weeks of backdated payments. California was so overwhelmed with fraudulent claims that it recently stopped accepting new applications for two weeks. Even after the PUA Application System was back up and running, Plaintiffs and other Class members were and are still locked out of their accounts pending a “fraud review.” News & Blog. When Rebecca Towne was laid off April 15 from her job as a tax preparer for Jackson Hewitt, she figured she would find another job. Like many Arkansans, she’d never drawn unemployment in her life and didn’t plan to start then. That number is almost a quarter of the total, and twice as many as the agency said were under review on Aug. 4. The communication informs applicants about the process for filing weekly claims to receive benefit payments at pua.arkansas.gov … She’s now working a janitorial job and is trying to rebuild her dog-walking business. “And I’m one of the lucky ones.” She knows many people, she said, who abandoned their claims after endless hours of trying and failing to reach anyone at DWS. income, pay stubs, bank statements, etc. The basic structure of the unemployment system is the same in every state: You must meet certain eligibility requirements based on your work history, you must be available and looking for work, and you must file a claim for benefits with your state’s unemployment department. After repeated phone calls, she’s still unsure why. 4. How long does it take for unemployment to review your claim? DWS was forced to take the website offline for several days to repair the problem. Directed by Clark Duke. Yet over 54,000 of those PUA claims had been flagged for internal review by Arkansas … In August, she resumed working as a paraprofessional at a nearby school, and she now brings home under $1,100 monthly from the job — not enough to cover rent, bills and groceries. That number is almost a quarter of the total, and twice as many as the agency said were under review on Aug. 4. Though she thinks she’s still owed partial payments for July, she’s not going to press the issue. The DWS worker accepted the explanation — but did not unlock her account. “You guys say I qualify, you say I’m going to be able to get help, and then you deny everything,” Towne said in a phone interview. Many such workers do not qualify for regular unemployment insurance, which is designed for workers classified as employees. The PUA program, which was created by Congress as part of the CARES Act, has provided an economic lifeline for tens of thousands of households in Arkansas. One worker told her the problem was that her tax prep job was seasonal and the April 15 layoff had been scheduled in advance. Calkins, the DWS spokeswoman, declined to say whether an out-of-state home address might result in a claim being flagged by the agency, citing security concerns. Many such workers do not qualify for regular unemployment insurance, which is designed for workers classified as employees. DWS has had to develop new processes and policies to investigate suspected fraud in the PUA system, Calkins said. A PUA applicant must self-certify that he or she lost work due to the pandemic and provide proof of income, such as last year’s tax return and recent invoices. DWS has had to develop new processes and policies to investigate suspected fraud in the PUA system, Calkins said. In contrast, a PUA claim filed by an independent contractor or self-employed person does not involve an employer. Calkins, the DWS spokeswoman, declined to say whether an out-of-state home address might result in a claim being flagged by the agency, citing security concerns. Here in Illinois mine is “ pending issues” for 10 weeks now. As of October, Towne had received a grand total of just $780 in benefits, for two weeks in August. Arkansas’s experience with PUA has been troubled from the beginning. LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (May 20, 2020) – Today, the Arkansas Division of Workforce Services sent email notification to Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) applicants who have been determined to meet the conditions for Interim Approval of PUA benefits. 3. Later, she was told that she shouldn’t have chosen “other” on a question asking applicants to select a reason why they were applying for PUA. “I know people in other states who were laid off who had no problem, and all I’ve done is jump through hoops for months.”. I can understand having some problems, but I don’t understand their lack of communication.”. Yet over 54,000 of those PUA claims had been flagged for internal review by Arkansas DWS as of Oct. 13, according to spokeswoman Zoë Calkins. It’s been nothing but a waiting game. The PUA program, which was created by Congress as part of the CARES Act, has provided an economic lifeline for tens of thousands of households in Arkansas. While most people are used to going to the […] She filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, the first week of July. Please email the documents and information listed above to PUA.Review@arkansas.gov and include your Application ID in the subject line of the email. “I know people in other states who were laid off who had no problem, and all I’ve done is jump through hoops for months.”. “They threw out the baby with the bathwater,” she said, referring to the state’s fraud prevention efforts. Arkansas’s experience with PUA has been troubled from the beginning. (Canine infections are now thought to be extremely rare.). DWS has doubled the number of staff assigned to handle in-person and telephone inquiries about both PUA and regular unemployment since March. But she declined to provide details about where the algorithms originated, saying only that they were developed through “a combined effort coordinated across internal and external entities.”, Calkins said in an email that DWS does not keep track of how many flagged claims have been confirmed to be fraudulent or how many have been cleared and released since the program began in May. For the next three weeks, she said, she called DWS almost daily in search of answers. Kyle and Swin live by the orders of an Arkansas-based drug kingpin named Frog, whom they've never met. 2. A flagged claim remains frozen until the review is complete, which can leave applicants in limbo for weeks or months. “I can’t even get anyone to help try to fix it,” Towne said. According to the Arkansas Division of Workforce Services, "about 20,000 unemployment claims have been flagged for review over the last few weeks." By mid-July, she’d given up on PUA and was piecing together cleaning and dog-sitting gigs as best she could. DWS was forced to take the website offline for several days to repair the problem. This reporting is courtesy of the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network, an independent, nonpartisan news project dedicated to producing journalism that matters to Arkansans. or call 1-844- 908- 2178 “I still have yet to receive anything,” he said in a phone interview. As of Oct. 13, DWS had received almost 238,000 applications for PUA, the program established by the federal government this spring to assist independent contractors, gig workers, the self-employed and others who lost work due to the COVID-19 crisis. “And I’m one of the lucky ones.” She knows many people, she said, who abandoned their claims after endless hours of trying and failing to reach anyone at DWS. It hired a vendor, Protech Solutions of Little Rock, to build a new system for PUA from scratch in April. Report Save. Yet over 54,000 of those PUA claims had been flagged for internal review by Arkansas DWS as of Oct. 13, according to spokeswoman Zoë Calkins. By July, she was borrowing money from her adult daughter to feed herself and her youngest daughter. She filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, the first week of July. The Times was notified of the vulnerability by an out-of-work software programmer who was applying for assistance. A user has also changed the category of the listing to Translator as well as users spamming the heck out of Google Questions & Answers. Arkansas unemployment is a joke. Meanwhile, Rebecca Towne is still waiting for answers about why her appeal was denied. As of Oct. 13, DWS had received almost 238,000 applications for PUA, the program established by the federal government this spring to assist independent contractors, gig workers, the self-employed and others who lost work due to the COVID-19 crisis. Talent Search; What We Do; Are We For You; Home; Creative. Another month passed before she received an email asking for her previous year’s tax return and other financial information, which she provided. Like many Arkansans, she’d never drawn unemployment in her life and didn’t plan to start then.
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