Boots & Sabers

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Owen

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1024, 15 Sep 20

State Might… MIGHT… Catch Up on Unemployment Backlog By End of Year

Utter. Incompetence.

Secretary Caleb Frostman told WISN 12 News since March, they’ve “paid about 510,000 people about $3.6 billion. There are 96,000 claimants in Wisconsin still waiting on at least one payment in our adjudication area, so we’re making progress week over week, continuing to grind through those oldest claims first, but obviously we’ve got continued work ahead of us, as we continue to grind down the mountain of claims that have piled up since COVID hit Wisconsin.”

[…]

Frostman also said they hope to catch up on the backlog by the end of the year.

 

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1024, 15 September 2020

25 Comments

  1. dad29

    Not only incompetent, but totes un-caring.  “Making progress week after week” is……..oatmeal.  No one–not even Trump–would do it, but taking the guy out and shooting him on the steps of the Capitol would serve two purposes:  1)  ‘encourage’ the remaining slugs in DWD to work harder and faster; and 2)  demonstrate that SOME elected official actually gives a damn.

    But hey!!  He gets paid no matter how many foreclosures he caused.  Cake, anyone??

  2. penquin

    >>Not only incompetent, but totes un-caring

    On this, we agree – the WI-GOP have shown they don’t care about this issue one iota, unless they are trying to make political hay out of it.

    >>but taking the guy out and shooting him

    While that is a lil’ harsh, why just one & not both of ’em? ’cause Fitz & Vos are both to blame for our Legislative branch doing nothing at all during this time of crisis.

    Keep in mind: it is the Assembly & State Senate which created the problems with the unemployment office, and they are the only ones who can fix it. But obviously, they beleive it is working exactly as intended and thus refuse to return from their paid vacation.

  3. penquin

    Whoops – hit “post comment” too soon….

    From the linked article:

    A lot of times, the biggest issues are around separation and those circumstances and in Wisconsin we have to adjudicate every separation over the last 18 months even if it’s not the most recent separation,” Frostman said. “So we’ve been making lots of calls to employers hoping those employers call us back, if we missed them, and talking to claimants as well. So between adding 1,300 staff and working from oldest claims first, we’ve been trying very, very hard to get to those folks who have been waiting the longest.”

    Pop Quiz – was this requirement to adjudicate every separation in the past year and a half enacted by the Legislative Branch or by the Governor’s office? Answer that question, and you’ll begin to understand who the blame for this mess fall upon…

  4. jjf

    Pay no attention to Dad29 when he gets like this.  He loves fantasizing about shooting people.

  5. dad29

    it is the Assembly & State Senate which created the problems with the unemployment office

    List the examples.

  6. dad29

    was this requirement to adjudicate every separation in the past year and a half enacted by the Legislative Branch

    Go ahead, tell us the answer.  Then tell us WHEN this was passed.

    And–by the way–when did “preventing fraud” become a horrible thing to you?

  7. penquin

    @dad29 – Your question was answered the first time you asked about how our unemployment office got into such a mess. The changes started back in 2011 & continued on with a lame-duck bill signed into law by then-Governor Scott Walker. One of the biggest problems is the one mentioned earlier in the thread, from the link provided by Owen.

    “Preventing Fraud” isn’t a horrible thing unless it is extremely detrimental to actually being able to provide the aid needed – which is exactly what is happening now. While looking into each&every employment separation in the past 18 months may be effective in “preventing fraud”, it is the reason why these payments are being delayed.

     

  8. dad29

    So your position is that the State should accept a bit of fraud?

    You DO know who pays for that, right?

  9. dad29

    From your earlier response, quoting a 2014 audit:

    DWD call centers automatically blocked 80% of calls during times of high volume.

    Looks like a DWD problem, not a “Walker” problem.

    If the steps that DWD has planned are insufficient and large numbers of calls are blocked in the coming months, DWD may need to take additional action,” the audit said.

    Note “….DWD planned……”  It was VERY obvious to any sentient adult that the Governor’s shut-down of the State was going to cause a large number of calls.  Somebody did NOT plan a damn thing here–and since this is Evers’ cabinet, there’s no excuse for not knowing what Tin-Pot Tony was going to do.

    Since UC is actually paid for by employers (or employees–same coin, different side) the Legislature’s fraud-prevention mantra makes sense.  After all, Democrats own businesses, too.

  10. Le Roi du Nord

    Hmmm, in 2014 walker was the governor, right? And he appointed the secretary of DWD , right?

  11. jjf

    Wow, Le Roi, it’s amazing, Walker isn’t responsible for anything, but Evers is responsible for everything.

  12. jjf

    Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.  Some new way to complain about Evers, I bet.

  13. Jason

    >Hmmm, in 2014 walker was the governor, right? And he appointed the secretary of DWD , right?

     

    And who has had years to fix and improve it,,, and didn’t?  Hint, it’s not Scott Walker, you imbecile.

  14. dad29

    “The computers don’t work right.”

    “The dog ate my homework.”

    Jiffy, who actually knows about computer systems, will tell you that the computers work just fine.  So do the application programs for DWD.

    What’s missing is ANY kind of planning or ANY sense of urgency, particularly from March through June.

    And now DWD Incompetent-in-Chief is history.  Sad.  Think he’ll be able to collect his UC quickly?

  15. penquin

    And who has had years to fix and improve it,,, and didn’t?

    That would be the State Assembly & State Senate. It is the Legislative branch, not the Governor’s office, that has the power to repeal/change the laws which are affecting the effectiveness of this agency.

     

  16. Jason

    >That would be the State Assembly & State Senate. It is the Legislative branch, not the Governor’s office, that has the power to repeal/change the laws which are affecting the effectiveness of this agency.

    Tell that to Leroy then… since he said this…

    >Hmmm, in 2014 walker was the governor, right? And he appointed the secretary of DWD , right?

    You two know you can’t have it both ways, right?  You liberals are a stupid lot, but this shows exponential dumb.

  17. Randall Flagg

    Clearly no one could have seen how badly Trump would screw up the amazing economy handed to him by Obama.  He took Obama’s 4.7 unemployment rate and ballooned it to almost 15%.

    No wonder DWD is still trying to catch up, given unemployment not seen since the Great Depression.

  18. penquin

    You two know you can’t have it both ways, right?  You liberals are a stupid lot

    A) We’re two different people with two different opinions, so why can’t view things in two different ways?

    B) I am not a liberal (NTTAWWT, of course).

    C) Why do you feel the need to personally attack & insult me? Have my comments somehow offended you?

    D) All the attempts to distract aside, the main point still stands: The current problems in the DWD can only be solved by the Legislative Branch, who are refusing to do anything at all. Why are you giving them a free pass on this one?

  19. penquin

    So your position is that the State should accept a bit of fraud?

    So your position is that everybody in the state has to wait months&months before getting their first unemployment check in order to make sure nobody at all made a mistake or is trying to defraud the system? If that’s the trade-off you’re willing to make then fine; but you don’t get to whine about people having to wait for that unemployment check ’cause the system is working exactly as you want it to.

    It like that old adage about “How many innocent people are you willing to send to prison just to make sure no guilty person is accidently set free?” all over again…

     

  20. Jason

    >B) I am not a liberal (NTTAWWT, of course).

    >C) Why do you feel the need to personally attack & insult me? Have my comments somehow offended you?

    penguin, I said “you liberals are a stupid lot”… and then you say “I’m not a liberal” and follow that with “why are you personally attacking me”…

    1) It was a generalization and not a personal attack.
    2) If you’re truly not a liberal, then it wouldn’t apply to you.

    But now that you’ve responded the way you did.. I can see that you are indeed stupid.

    My point still stands too. If Walker set up this failure then Evers is incompetent. Of course he just fired his guy and now was have a Dept of Corrections guy who is going to fix it. haha.

  21. Jason

    >everybody in the state has to wait months&months before getting their first unemployment

    Everybody? Saying things like that just reinforce my previous response to you.

  22. Jason

    >Clearly no one could have seen how badly Trump would screw up the amazing economy handed to him by Obama.

    Really Randall? Trump closed restaurants and bars and hair salons and countless other business types? Trump did that?

  23. penquin

    penguin, I said “you liberals are a stupid lot”

    Exactly – you were stating that I am a liberal, and that liberals are a stupid lot. How is that not supposed to be taken as a personal attack?

    Everybody?

    Yes, everybody. If the goal is to prevent ALL fraud, then we need to tighten up the process even more than it already is – hence everybody will be waiting for their checks.

    All that aside: your constant name-calling & bigoted slurs don’t change the point that is being made: It is the Assembly & State Senate which created the problems with the unemployment office. The Governor can not simply repeal/change those laws by himself.

     

    it is the Assembly & State Senate which created the problems with the unemployment office

     

     

  24. dad29

    We’re back to “competence.”  The fired DWD secretary’s prior experience was being a State Senator (who got clocked by a very conservative candidate) and being director of tourism or commerce (?) for Door County.

    Evers’ hire was just terrible.

    Could anyone else have done better?  Well, could ANYONE else have foreseen a surge in UC applications given that the Governor was going to close down the State?  Anyone?  Bueller??

    Competence.

  25. jjf

    Dad29, I’d be tempted to say “you must be new here” but then I remember all the Walker appointments you didn’t question this way.

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