Self employed, independent contractors can apply for unemployment Friday

Separate program extending weekly payments for people who've run out of benefits not ready yet.

Posted 5:30 p.m. Apr 21, 2020 — Updated 12:45 p.m. Apr 22, 2020

Travis Fain

, WRAL statehouse reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal program to pay unemployment benefits to self-employed people and independent contractors should go live in North Carolina Friday, Assistant Secretary of the Division of Employment Security Lockhart Taylor told lawmakers Tuesday.

This will let people who aren't typically eligible for benefits draw down weekly payments backed by the federal government.

A related program, to extend benefits for people who have exhausted the 12 weeks allowed under North Carolina law, isn't ready to launch, Taylor said. He said he hoped to have a timetable by Wednesday.

Both programs will pay benefits retroactively back to at least early April.

Taylor also said he hopes the addition of another 600 call takers will radically boost the state's ability to handle incoming calls, and he told legislators that he's hoping to handle up to 33,000 a day. He said an upgrade to a cloud-based phone system has improved capacity issues on the phone lines and cut down on automatic disconnects.

"We’re going to be able to keep more individuals on hold," Taylor told a House working group on COVID-19 issues. "There’s just no worse customer service you can provide than to cut someone off.”

Taylor's division has taken some 690,000 unemployment claims since March 16. That's roughly 13 percent of the state's civilian workforce. The law also requires people to file weekly certifications to keep getting benefits.

The division said it took in 17,000 claims Monday and that it has paid out more than half a billion dollars in unemployment benefits since March 15. Most of that was funded by federal legislation that added an extra $600 a week to the state's benefits, which are usually among the lowest in the nation.

The 13-week extension also contemplated in that bill will cover people who were out of work before COVID-19 crashed the economy. Taylor said it will cover people who lost their job going back to July of last year, but they will need to be out of work now due to COVID-19.

He said DES staff is programming that system now and that he did not think people would need to file another claim.

Taylor indicated that, when the program for self-employed people and independent contractors goes live Friday, people who've already filed should be able to go back into their existing claim and answer new questions.

He said DES will "absolutely will have call center staff” working this Saturday.

Also Tuesday, Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order to let temporarily furloughed employees receive unemployment benefits, even if they're also getting voluntary payments from their employer.

Though many have complained of problems reaching DES call centers and, at times, filing online, House lawmakers from both sides of the aisle complimented Taylor and his team Tuesday. The state has gone from some 3,200 claims a week in 2019 to nearly 20,000 a day.

“Let’s not thank me until we get your phones to stop ringing and the people eligible for the benefits get the benefits," Taylor said at one point.

Suggest A Correction