WRAL reports that over the same period the state has also dragged its feet on Unemployment Insurance (UI) claims.
The number of unemployed North Carolina workers who waited longer than three weeks for their initial benefit check increased after a new unemployment insurance law took effect last summer.The delays in caseload processing are due largely to Republican-enacted changes in the state's UI system.
Besides reducing the amount of benefits, reducing the length of benefits, and imposing an extra week's delay in receiving benefits, Republicans put workers on the hook for any overage mistakes that the state made.
Closer scrutiny of new applications has led to delays in awarding benefits.
As with its problems with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program processing, the state is violating federal law. For UI, federal law requires that 87 percent of initial claims be paid within three weeks; however, NC has only been averaging 70 to 80 percent.
It doesn't seem that there is much that NC can do right--at least when it comes to its disadvantaged and vulnerable citizens.
