Texas unemployment agency postpones return of work search requirement as COVID-19 cases spike

AUSTIN — The Texas Workforce Commission has postponed the return of the work search requirement for unemployment benefits for another month as COVID-19 cases across the state spike and some businesses across the state are forced to close.

The announcement, which came at the commission’s weekly meeting, is a major reversal from two weeks ago when the commission said it would reinstate the work search requirement beginning in July. That decision was heavily criticized by worker advocates who said it was unfair to ask job seekers to prove job searches when so many businesses remained closed or under financial pressures.

At the commission meeting, executive director Ed Serna said the agency was putting a pause on the requirement’s return.

Serna mentioned the major spike in new coronavirus cases in the state last week and Gov. Greg Abbott’s Friday decision to shutter bars and tubing businesses and reducing the capacity of restaurants to no more than 50%.

“Due to the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in Texas, TWC has decided to pause the return of work search requirements at this time,” Serna said in a statement. “We will continue to monitor the situation and make further recommendations in late July.”

Jonathan Lewis, a senior policy analyst with the think tank Every Texan, which had warned against reinstating the requirement, said the commission’s reversal was in the best interest of Texans.

“It’s great to see the agency reverse this policy decision that would have put undue burdens on Texans at a time when so many businesses are still closed and many have re-closed,” Lewis said in a statement. “Going forward, the commission should stop focusing on how to make it harder for struggling Texans to get benefits, and instead shift its focus to supporting workers so people can get back to work safely.”

Rick Levy, president of the Texas AFL-CIO, said he was relieved to see the commission postpone its “ill-considered” resumption of the work requirement at a time when unemployment benefits seekers are still struggling to get through the commission’s phone lines for help.

“Until TWC ramps up public access to acceptable levels, the agency needs to dispense with administrative requirements that are not essential to the task of verifying eligibility and making payments,” Levy said in a statement. “The agency should go further and suspend the bi-weekly ‘request for payment’ required of workers who have already been deemed eligible for benefits.”

Just two weeks ago, Serna had said employment opportunities were beginning to bounce back.

“There are opportunities out there, and getting Texans back to work and businesses up and running again will create even more,” he said two weeks ago.

The agency’s Tuesday decision will be welcome news to unemployed workers who would have been required to complete three job searches per week in order to continue receiving their unemployment insurance benefits.

Unemployed Texans may lose another source of income in the form of the $600 weekly stimulus given to them by the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Those payments are set to run out by the end of July unless Congress passes another bill aimed at providing economic relief.

Abhi Rahman, a spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party blasted the workforce commission and Abbott for its policy responses during the pandemic.

“Doing the right thing shouldn’t be this hard. The fact that workforce requirements was even a question shows exactly what Abbott and the Texas Workforce Commission’s think about our current crisis. There are still thousands of Texans waiting for their workforce claims to be processed,” he said in a written statement. “Texans everywhere need relief, a point the Abbott Administration and Texas Republicans seem to be missing.”