Nearly 17,000 Virginians who receive unemployment benefits at risk to lose the benefits, VEC says
RICHMOND, Virginia – The Virginia Employment Commission recently told almost 17,000 people that their appeals for unemployment benefits will not be heard unless they can show that they did not file them too late by Thursday.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch said that the VEC told 16,656 claimants and 191 employers that their appeals will be thrown out unless they can show that they filed their request within 30 days of the initial decision or that they had a good reason for missing the deadline.
The deadline for responding to the notices of possible dismissal, which were sent out on January 26, is Thursday.
The VEC’s Commissioner Carrie Roth told the newspaper that the agency came up with the plan in consultation with the U.S. Department of Labor, which agreed to the plan on January 11. During the pandemic, the agency, like many others across the country, had trouble keeping up with the rising number of unemployment insurance claims. It is still working through backlogs caused by the pandemic.
But people who work to help unemployed people have raised very serious concerns. Marty Wegbreit, who is in charge of litigation at the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society, said that this was “a huge violation of the right to due process of law.”
People who got the notice were told by the Virginia Poverty Law Center to do a few things, like respond to the VEC by Thursday with proof of their response and certain paperwork.
