Kaufer Offers Solution to Governor to Aid with Unemployment Claims

4/13/2020

LUZERNE – Seeking to help remedy the over-abundance of unemployment compensation and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims, Rep. Aaron Kaufer (R-Luzerne) sent a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf asking that he enlist the recently furloughed non-essential state employees to assist in the response and processing of the claims.

Kaufer provided the following statement regarding his request to the governor:

“This decision to close non-essential businesses has led to record increases in applications for unemployment compensation, along with the as yet unknown numbers of applications pending the implementation of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which was authorized through the federal CARES Act to provide financial help to self-employed workers and independent contractors. We know that we do not have the capacity to process these claims in a timely manner, which is why I have asked that the furloughed state employees be reinstated to help tackle the ever-growing number of unemployment claims.

“There are thousands of state employees who would be happy to return to work to help their fellow citizens through these difficult times. We owe it to the people of Pennsylvania who have put their lives and livelihoods on hold in order to protect our communities from the spread of COVID-l9 to implement these programs more quickly and provide people the relief they so desperately need. We must act swiftly. We have called upon the people of this Commonwealth to help us stop the spread of this disease and they have gone to painful lengths to do so. The people are calling upon us to provide them with assistance in their time of need. We have a duty to meet this need.

“I commend all of the individuals working tirelessly for the Department of Labor and Industry and urge the governor to help expand the capacity to process unemployment claims.”

Representative Aaron Kaufer
120th Legislative District
PA House of Representatives