With thousands of Marylanders still struggling to collect unemployment benefits during the pandemic, leaders in the state’s General Assembly are planning ways to fix key components of the overwhelmed program.

Unemployed workers have faced excruciatingly long wait times while trying to collect unemployment payments since the crisis began in March last year. In a press conference Thursday, Senate President Bill Ferguson said legislative staff are now working on more than 4,000 active unemployment claims that have been stalled in the state’s Department of Labor.

“The pandemic woke a sleeping giant, and all of a sudden the giant has taken over,” said Sen. Katherine Klausmeier (D-Baltimore County), senate chair of the Joint Committee on Unemployment Insurance Oversight.

Lawmakers plan to introduce bills for immediate fixes, including:

• Making it easier to receive payments via paper checks or direct deposit instead of on debit cards
• Increasing call center staff
• Allowing claimants to leave a callback number with the unemployment office
• Requiring caller ID for calls from the unemployment office so claimants are more likely to pick up when they get a call back
• Improving reading accessibility on the unemployment system website and offering information in more languages
• Creating “metrics for claim adjudication and requirements for response times”

Lawmakers acknowledged that the package of bills won’t solve every problem with the system, but it’s a starting point. “These bills take a step in the right direction to help Marylanders who will have to rely on these benefits in much-needed times,” Klausmeier said.

The package also includes structural changes intended to improve the benefits system over the long term. Lawmakers say their proposals would allow Marylanders to earn some money while collecting benefits; create a “disaster protocol” to help the state react more quickly to sudden spikes in unemployment claims; offer assistance to businesses whose unemployment insurance costs have gone up due to pandemic-induced layoffs; and embark on a study of broader changes to unemployment eligibility, maximum weekly benefits and more.

Maryland’s Department of Labor says it has paid out more than $9 billion in benefits since the pandemic began. More than 50,000 new claims for unemployment insurance were filed last week, according to state data. As of this week, the department says it has processed more than 95% of claims filed during the pandemic, with roughly 44,000 claims still unresolved.

“Unemployment insurance is supposed to help Marylanders at a low point — when they’ve lost a job. It has failed Maryland families,” said Del. Ned Carey (D-Anne Arundel County), house chair of the Joint Committee on Unemployment Insurance Oversight, in a statement. “We must have a plan in place to make sure this never happens again.”