KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced she will address issues within the Kansas Department of Labor's ability to handle the volume of unemployment claims that have come in since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March.
KDOL Secretary Delia Garcia has resigned from her position and Kelly's Deputy Chief of Staff Ryan Wright will serve in the role until a candidate is nominated.
Kelly announced she will bring in specialists to look for ways to improve the unemployment process and prevent future errors and backlogs.
“As Governor, I’m responsible for KDOL’s handling of unemployment claims. I am taking immediate action to ensure Kansans who are out of work, through no fault of their own, are getting the assistance they need,” Kelly said in a release Monday. “I want to thank Secretary García for her service to Kansas. While states around the country have struggled to manage unemployment claims during the worst public health crisis in a century, Secretary García inherited an agency that had its funding, its technology, and its staff gutted by the previous administration.”
One of the major errors being addressed is an issue of duplicate payments.
According to Kelly, on June 10 more than 4,500 people who filed for pandemic-related unemployment assistance were paid doubly, for a total of about $7 million.
KDOL tried to correct the issue by reversing the duplicate payments, which caused many who applied for the aid to have their bank accounts overdrawn.
Kelly said KDOL is working to identify and reimburse anyone whose account was overdrawn and will create a special hotline for those who were affected to reach out.
