PRESS RELEASE: State Agency Slowdown Costly to Businesses, Jobless
Now that the tax increases have been signed into law, Illinois must do everything it can to keep businesses from leaving the state. The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) can lead the way by correcting a work slowdown
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IDES review boards appeals caseload a fraction of what it was a year ago
JAN. 25, 2011 Now that the tax increases have been signed into law, Illinois must do everything it can to keep businesses from leaving the state. The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) can lead the way by correcting a work slowdown that is forcing many small business owners to pay more than they should for unemployment insurance.
In a report released this week, the Illinois Policy Institutes Investigative Reporter Lee Williams found that the state agency is handling about half as many appeals cases as it did at this time, last year. While agency heads declined to address the slowdown, IDES staffers said the delays are part of an intentional, coordinated effort prompted by bureaucratic infighting, frustrated staff or flat out laziness on the part of state workers.
Among the reports findings:
- The review board the highest appellate body within the IDES handled an average of 1,447 cases between January 2009 and September 2010. The monthly caseload dropped to 416 in September 2010.
- The number of cases that have made their way to the review board has not surpassed 1,000 cases since September 2010.
- Such a light caseload is clearly an anomaly; the last time the review board handled less than 1,000 cases in a given month was January 2009.
This slowdown is affecting hundreds of small business owners waiting for frivolous unemployment claims to be cleaned from their record, and jobless workers waiting on unemployment checks.
To illustrate how much a frivolous claim could cost: One small business owner was forced to pay an additional $6,000 annually after a second unemployment claim on his record increased his rate from 2.9 percent to 7 percent.
This story was prompted by a call to the Last Honest Man tip line, a toll-free news tip line monitored 24 hours a day by Lee Williams, the Institutes seasoned investigative reporter. Williams investigates tips and publishes findings online at: http://www.illinoispolicy.org/lasthonestman