{"id":45994,"date":"2021-06-30T23:10:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T23:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/filing-for-unemployment-better-have-a-smartphone-and-patience\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:28:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:28:40","slug":"filing-for-unemployment-better-have-a-smartphone-and-patience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/filing-for-unemployment-better-have-a-smartphone-and-patience\/","title":{"rendered":"Filing for unemployment? Better have a smartphone and patience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Applications
Applications for new unemployment benefits are down, suggesting that businesses are still hiring.<\/span>Mike Groll\/Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Residents who need to file for unemployment benefits should carve out sufficient time to complete the process, according to several library employees in La Plata County.<\/p>\n

The filing process includes a new identity verification process, launched in response to unemployment fraudsters, that requires a smartphone and technical know-how. The process has highlighted a digital divide across the state: Some users can skate through the process, while others, such as older adults or people with lower incomes, spend days or even months trying to navigate the system.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo I have words to describe it? It was very frustrating,\u201d said Patty Wright, a 72-year-old resident near Ignacio who has been helping her friend, Charles Paul, 60, file for unemployment.<\/p>\n

Paul lost his restaurant job in April 2020 when El Amigo in Ignacio closed at the start of the pandemic. He experiences a few hearing and cognition challenges, so Wright jumped in to help him.<\/p>\n

Wright and Paul successfully signed him up for unemployment in 2020 (a process that included a six-week stint on a call-back waitlist).<\/p>\n

But with governments doling out increased unemployment benefits because of the pandemic, scammers started to take advantage. Colorado\u2019s Labor Department estimated it has paid out at least $22 million in fraudulent unemployment claims as of June.<\/p>\n

Like more than 25 states around the country, Colorado turned to the new verification service, ID.me, to block the increased fraud attempts.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment required all claimants to verify their identities through ID.me by April.<\/p>\n

For Paul and Wright, ID.me presented a host of new challenges.<\/p>\n

The service asks people to have an email address, provide a form of government identification, use a phone with a camera, verify information via text messages or phone calls, take \u201cvideo selfies,\u201d establish multi-factor account authentication and provide a Social Security number.<\/p>\n

Paul had a smartphone, but he was unable to hear on it and didn\u2019t know how to use it, Wright said. Photos submitted through her phone would link her number to his account. They could file online, but they needed a computer with a webcam.<\/p>\n

The pair turned to Ignacio Community Library for help. They spent several hours working on the process on a library computer, only to have the library close.<\/p>\n

Wright had never done online videos before, so they turned to ID.me for help on the video selfie, she said. CDLE refers requests for assistance to ID.me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lady on the other end was really nice. I shut her off once and I couldn\u2019t find the microphone. We were off-balance that time,\u201d Wright said. \u201cI\u2019m not up on this computer stuff. I\u2019m 72 years old \u2026 I don\u2019t know a whole lot about computers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with assistance \u2013 and one employee staying after hours to help \u2013 it took eight hours spread over the course of four days to finish the verification process.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had to go three weeks without any money coming in,\u201d Wright said. \u201cThat was pretty difficult for him because he didn\u2019t have any money to pay his bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Employees at the Pine River Library in Bayfield and the Durango Public Library have also seen people coming in for help with unemployment benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d be surprised \u2013 a lot of people out there still don\u2019t have an email,\u201d said Sandy Irwin, Durango library director. \u201cThere are a lot of people who don\u2019t have smartphones or their phones are not capable of what ID.me is asking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

If they needed help, they\u2019re given a phone number, she said. Some people were put on hold for hours, Irwin said.<\/p>\n

Nationally, about 85% of people own smartphones. That number is lower for people older than 50, those with a high school diploma or less education, people making less than $30,000 each year and people living in rural areas, according to Pew Research Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Durango Public Library sees about two or three people each week who need help. Ignacio librarians help about six per week. Staff members reached out to ID.me and learned that about 86% of claimants get through the process in 15 minutes or less.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him libraries are dealing with those 14% who are part of the digital divide or have other issues,\u201d said Colleen Galvin, assistant library director.<\/p>\n

Library staff members felt under-resourced and untrained to help visitors. In Durango, staff members created a resource room for people filing for unemployment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a smartphone and you\u2019re really tech savvy, it won\u2019t take very long. But it takes a long time for people who aren\u2019t tech savvy,\u201d Irwin said. \u201cThis is taking time for people who don\u2019t have the technical skills to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado launches rigorous digital verification process to thwart fraud<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[731,685,950,3371,28,1235,4549],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-durango","tag-durango-public-library","tag-headlines","tag-ignacio","tag-unemployment"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86708,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45994\/revisions\/86708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45994"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}