Fact check: Is NC the worst state for unemployment benefits and timely payments?
The issue: In an opinion piece this month — before North Carolina’s General Assembly passed its latest coronavirus relief package — Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said North Carolina has “some of the lowest unemployment benefits in the country” and is “dead last” in the number of benefit weeks available for those claiming unemployment.
Cooper isn’t the first to call attention to North Carolina’s benefits compared to other states. In recent months, both Democrats and Republicans have said North Carolina is the “worst in the nation” or ranks last for various reasons when it comes to unemployment benefits.
Why we’re checking this: With both parties calling attention to North Carolina’s struggles in serving the unemployed during the pandemic, we wanted to know if Cooper’s claims that North Carolina is one of the worst in the country — or in one category, the worst — are true.
What you need to know:
Cooper’s claim that North Carolina is “dead last” when it comes to maximum weekly benefits available for those claiming unemployment is true, though the state is tied with Florida in its ranking.
Cooper’s also right that North Carolina has “some of the lowest” weekly benefits, considering the state ranked 49th for average weekly benefits in August.
But there’s at least one other area where North Carolina falls behind other states when it comes to unemployment benefits, and that’s how long it takes the state to distribute those benefits.
The claims
“North Carolina provides some of the lowest unemployment benefits in the country and is dead last in the number of benefit weeks available — that’s shameful,” Cooper said in an online commentary that outlined his budget proposal for the remainder of federal CARES Act funding.
Ahead of the General Assembly allocating the remainder of more than $900 million in federal funding, Cooper proposed increasing the maximum unemployment benefit each week to $500, up from $350, and increasing the maximum benefit duration from 12 weeks to 24 weeks.
That didn’t happen. Instead, the General Assembly passed a bill that increased unemployment benefits by $50 per week across the board and didn’t pass any measures that increase the maximum amount of time North Carolinians can receive benefits.
From April until the end of July, the federal government provided an extra $600 each week for those who qualified for unemployment. When that expired, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved a plan to provide an additional $300 per week for six weeks. That ended Sept. 5.
Nearly every state provides a maximum duration of 26 weeks of regular state-funded benefits, with the possibility of extra weeks in times of high unemployment or when the federal government supplements those benefits, as was the case with the CARES Act.
Until 2013, when the state passed legislation decreasing the length of maximum benefits, North Carolina also provided 26 weeks. Now, both Florida and North Carolina provide the shortest maximum regular benefit duration at 12 weeks. North Carolina also provides 9.6 weeks in extended benefits, when an unemployed person exhausts their regular benefits and the state is in a time of high unemployment.
As of August, North Carolina’s average weekly benefits provided was $210.98, compared to the national average of $305.39, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. That number excludes federal supplements.
That put the state at 49th out of 53 states, territories and the District of Columbia, according to the federal numbers.
Delays in getting benefits
In the third quarter of 2019, between July and September, North Carolina placed last in a state-by-state ranking of timely distribution of unemployment benefits. Only 62.4% of benefits were distributed within two to three weeks of an unemployed person’s first eligible week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s state rankings of core measures.
Since then, North Carolina has slowly climbed higher in the ranks when it comes to timely benefit payments. In the last quarter of 2019, North Carolina was third to last, with 73.9% of benefits distributed within 14 to 21 days, according to the department. Only the Virgin Islands and Nebraska had a lower percentage.
In the first quarter of 2020, the Department of Labor reported North Carolina was 49th out of 53 states, territories and the District of Columbia, filling 80.8% of all claims ahead of the two to three week mark. That period ended in March as unemployment claims began to soar because of the pandemic and related closures, including those ordered by Cooper to slow the virus.
Cooper addressed delays beginning in April by adding staff and extending hours at the state’s unemployment office, The News & Observer previously reported.
By the latest quarter with complete data, the one ending June 30, North Carolina was in 41st place. Still, the percentage of claims filled in a timely manner fell compared to previous months, to 61.8%, despite the state recruiting thousands of workers to work in the state’s unemployment office.
So although North Carolina isn’t currently dead last, we still fall behind dozens of other states. And the state was ranked last in the third quarter of 2019, as one political ad says.
The ad, released by the Republican Governors Association this month, blames Cooper, calling him “incompetent.” But budget cuts by Congress and the state legislature are partly to blame, one expert said.
“The administrative problems are a function of a huge influx of new claims due to the surge in unemployment, combined with sustained disinvestment by the state and federal government in the underlying administrative system,” said John Quinterno of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.
The federal government was supposed to cover state administrative costs, Quintero said in a follow-up email, but since the 1980s, Congress has not provided enough funding to do that.
“That has led many states to provide supplemental funding to their employment security agencies to help deal with the shortfalls,” Quintero said. “The NC General Assembly used to provide annual supplemental funding from the general fund, but the legislature stopped doing so several years ago.”
Our sources:
Monthly Program and Financial Data, Department of Labor
State Rankings of Core Measures, Department of Labor
Congressional Research Service
This story was produced by The News & Observer Fact-Checking Project, which shares fact-checks with newsrooms statewide. It was edited by politics editor Jordan Schrader and Managing Editor Jane Elizabeth. Submit a suggestion for what we should check, or a comment or suggestion about our fact-checking, at bit.ly/nandofactcheck.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Domecast politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Megaphone, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 11:50 AM with the headline "Fact check: Is NC the worst state for unemployment benefits and timely payments?."
