System for Unemployment Benefits Exposes Digital Divide
By Andrew Kenney, Colorado Public Radio
Published May 3, 2021
Lawmakers and President Trump have said they want the checks mailed by April 6. Still, because the Internal Revenue Service has reduced staff at all of its locations because of the coronavirus, many believe the checks may not go out until May. (Photo: iStockphoto / NNPA)
As a social worker with the Denver Public Library, part of Sonia Falcon’s job is to help people in East Denver use government services and benefits. But she’s never seen anything like the unemployment case that has consumed her work since February.
Like dozens of other states, Colorado is turning to new technology to protect its unemployment system from scammers. The labor department recently enlisted a third-party platform, ID.me, to verify people s identities – a process that requires users to scan their faces with a smartphone s camera, upload photographs of their IDs and, in some cases, wait for hours for a live video interview.
For Falcón and her client, it s turned into a nightmare. They ve spent weeks getting the teacher s vital documents up to date. Eventually, they ll have to find a way to have her use a smartphone, perhaps at a recently reopened library branch. Without the verification, the teacher is locked out of her unemployment benefits and has had to visit food banks to survive.
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By ANDREW KENNEY - Associated Press - Sunday, May 2, 2021
DENVER (AP) - As a social worker with the Denver Public Library, part of Sonia Falcón’s job is to help people in East Denver use government services and benefits. But she’s never seen anything like the unemployment case that has consumed her work since February.
“I would say at minimum 10 hours a week,” Falcón explained. “It’s been significant.”
She’s spent all those hours helping one 66-year-old library patron, an out-of-work preschool teacher, with her unemployment benefits. They are trying to navigate the labor department’s new cybersecurity system, which is designed for smartphones and requires multiple forms of current government ID. The preschool teacher has neither.
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