I was going to ask. Is the state of Washington allowing furloughed workers to get unemployment benefits?
I'm not sure how smoothly it's going, but there is a premise for it. I only know because the bar owner posted on facebook a stack of letters she'd gotten from the unemployment office as "progress" that things were moving swiftly. I zoomed in and saw they were all denials of "standby" unemployment. Looked that up and it's for people who are furloughed with the expectation of going back within 4 weeks, and makes it where they don't have to go through the song & dance of applying for new jobs. Her crew got denied because they couldn't say they'd be hired back within 4 weeks, although the letter indicated that if the employer says they'll be back within 8 weeks and is cool w/taking the ding on their UI for that, then it'd be approved. I assume she's done that, as her crew getting money was her biggest motivator for just closing entirely rather than trying to turn into a carry-out business.
I also think they may have gotten approved, but just not of the "standby" type, which probably means they just have to fill out some token job applications each week.
The ones who are black should apply to be NFL head coaches and GMs, and then both sides can be getting something out of the teams' token rooney rule interviews.
There's no excuse for state government to work that poorly.
It's exactly how any state function of the sort operates; disability, unemployment, etc. The processes are designed to where there's almost always an initial denial, and then the applicant has to do an appeal process to provide more information to show they're entitled to something.
The problem here is that the unemployment benefits option and process isn't designed to be taking in this many applicants with uncertain situations all at once, and that's why there needed to be and needs to be a coronavirus-specific solution exclusive from standard unemployment benefits - direct payments to all/most/affected, or a separate state unemployment process specific to the uniqueness of those unemployed because of coronavirus (including those whose jobs went away by state's order).
But why would any politician/government be motivated to get that done quickly and without ulterior motives?
