Problems with unemployment mean some Arizonans miss checks

Many unemployment checks that arrived Monday in Arizona were missing the federal bonus of $600 provide by the CARES Act.

The Arizona Department of Economic Security released a statement about the smaller checks.

“DES is aware that there are claimants who filed weekly certifications recently that did not receive the additional $600 weekly Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation payment benefit. We sincerely apologize and are working to correct this as quickly as possible,” said a statement sent to the media.

Officials with the state gave no reason for the problem, nor did they say how many people were affected by the smaller checks.

The statement did say the state is working to fix the problem, but it gave no timeline for that fix.

Last week, 32,938 people filed first-time unemployment claims in Arizona. That was a drop of 10,000 people over the week before. Since the beginning of March, 553,696 Arizona residents have filed first-time unemployment claims. That is 7.6% of the Arizona population.

While the number of first-time claims is dropping, the number of people continuing to receive unemployment claims in the state continues to rise. Last week, 293,424 people received unemployment benefits. The numbers for the first full week of May were an increase of nearly 75,000 from the previous week.

On Monday, the state sent 165,000 checks to self-employed Arizona residents who had previously been denied benefits. Under a new federal program, those who are self-employed, independent contractors, or work in the gig economy can now claim unemployment.

That group is eligible for the $600 federal payment from the CARES program and can receive from $117-$240 from the state. The payments can be retroactive to February.