Steady, an app used by 2.5 million gig workers, introduces tools for states to improve unemployment benefit processing and delivery amid spike in COVID-19 recession claims
Steady, a groundbreaking app used by over 2.5 million 1099, hourly and gig workers in the U.S., today launched its “Income Verifier” product, which utilizes its proven and scaled income intelligence to allow states to alleviate the financial and clerical burden of vetting unemployment claims for fraud. Backed by leading impact investors and NBA legend, Shaquille O’Neal, Steady now allows states to verify hard-to-access income data directly from banks and financial institutions, in real-time, without relying on self-reported or manual inputs. Available as an integrated solution or absent any integration, Steady technology currently supports the OCC’s Project REACH on inclusive finance utilizing alternative data.
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“States are under enormous pressure to both reduce fraud, while ensuring that workers can access vital economic lifelines as quickly as possible,” said Adam Roseman, CEO of Steady. “We quickly realized that our tech solves for this challenge, and verifies workers’ income to ensure that benefit checks promptly reach those who need it the most.”
According to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, many federal and state agencies are experiencing issues in processing a historically high number of claims, which has led to massive delays in payments and losses due to fraud. In the state of Washington, fraudulent claims have cost between $550 million and $650 million, and California officials have said the number is closer to $2 billion. Steady has a sophisticated view into hourly worker income and wage trends, or “income intelligence,” which can be leveraged by public sector agencies to analyze earnings and instantly determine eligibility for unemployment benefits.
In addition to helping gig workers find thousands of local hourly, part-time, and work-from-home jobs, Steady is proud to give its app users access to membership benefits such as free access to tele-health and financial support. Since March, Steady has issued more than $3.2 million in emergency cash grants for hourly workers to counterbalance the lagging government stimulus and lack of job opportunities.
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