Updated Information:

PUA

• In terms of legitimate PUA claims, as of 01/19/21, 14,346 claims are in the determination
process, as it stands at this moment. 9,972 claims are in verification/upload process for
more than 21 days (which is when the claim is considered backlogged). These numbers are
stable, though they can fluctuate slightly, week-to-week as new claimants come into the
system. So we have been able to work the PUA backlog down from 25,000 to 9,972 since
the build out was completed in Nov. 2020
• KDOL is also working to identify and notify claimants that have partial or incomplete
documentation so that their eligibility may be evaluated

• On average, we are handling approximately 500 PUA issues a day with our adjudicators.
Most claimants have multiple issues
o Each claimant typically has between 1-18 issues with the average being around 4.3. It’s not
unusual for a claimants to have over 100 issues

• PUA claims are considered backlogged after 21 days and if all required documents have not
been uploaded, not inconsistent with how we evaluate Regular UI

• We believe that in the very near future our team will have addressed the large majority of
claims in the backlog that have submitted completed documentation and we will continue to
work with claimants on completing their documentation so that their claims may be
evaluated

• As most people know, PUA is an entirely new system, and the determination build out
enables us to now work with claimants who never before had been part of the KDOL UI
ecosystem
o Ex: Gig workers, independent contractors, church employees

• It is important to remember that if a claimant has been waiting in this backlog it is because
there was something within the claim that required additional information or scrutiny. Some
of the issues are simple, others more complicated
o We expect valid claims to be paid out once claimants complete the missing paperwork

o Of course, not everyone will be found to be eligible for the PUA program

o KDOL cannot process a backlogged claim if a person has missing paperwork

• The Continued Assistance Act provides an additional 11 weeks of PUA unemployment

benefits for claimants
o The additional benefits begin on or after Jan. 2, 2021
Regular UI

• As of 01/19/21 the backlog numbers: approximately 66

• At the end of June the Regular UI backlog was around 25,000, today it stands at the
backlog number in the bullet above

• KDOL has made progress eliminating the backlog of Regular UI claims, but we are limited in
what we can do to speed up this process. This is due to the timelines that are set in statute.
Still, we are making headway and are on target to eliminate this backlog

Fraud

• As of 01/05, we’ve stopped more than 253,000 fraudulent claims

• This primarily impacts PUA claims

• We’ve done this through both www.ReportFraud.ks.gov and our investigations team

• USDOL estimates the total impact nationwide to be between $8B and $26B

• We are stopping about 2300 suspected fraud claims, daily