Heather Korbulic was appointed last week to lead the Nevada Department of Training and Rehabilitation after Tiffany Tyler-Garner announced her resignation, effective May 1.
CARSON CITY, Nev. — The Interim Finance Committee on April 30 approved acceptance of up to $10.7 million in federal money largely to try to eliminate the huge backlog in people filing for unemployment.
Heather Korbulic, the newly-appointed director of the Department of Employment Training and Rehabilitation, told lawmakers that, before the virus struck, Nevada's unemployment division was receiving 10,000 new claims for benefits per month.
“We're now receiving 10,000 a day,” she said, adding that the current system runs through the state telephone system.
To try to fix the problem, she said they are putting together a contract to move the entire filing system to a cloud-based system because the state phone system is unable to handle the load.
Kimberly Gaa of the Employment Security Division said they are also working to get the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program that will enable the independent contractors, gig workers and others currently unable to get benefits to do so.
She said that program is designed to help those people who are “not otherwise eligible.”
Since many of those people are currently applying but can't, yet, get benefits, Sen. Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, said it would make sense to tell those people to hold off until May 15 when the PUA program will hopefully go live.
Korbulic said now that the contracts have been executed, the department is working to put together some outreach to help people navigate the system
Gaa said they are also working on other changes to processes at the division to speed up and ease the process of applying for and receiving benefits.
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