Many Americans seeking unemployment benefits are finding more frustration than relief. State websites and phone lines have been overwhelmed with applicants -- causing sites to crash, phone lines to ring busy and much-needed payments to be delayed.
FILE - In this Wednesday, March 18, 2020 file photo, Visitors to the Department of Labor are turned away at the door by personnel due to closures over coronavirus concerns in New York. Americans are seeking unemployment benefits at unprecedented levels due to the coronavirus, but many are finding more frustration than relief.
State websites and phone lines across the country have been overwhelmed with applicants — causing sites to crash, phone lines to ring busy and much-needed payments to be delayed. While many states are doing their best to respond — adding staff, updating technology and streamlining the process — it’s tough to keep up with the pace of demand.“There’s no hospital system in the world that’s designed to handle what we’re dealing with,” Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted told reporters.
To handle the influx, New York has added 20 servers, hundreds of staff and expanded its hours of operations. It’s also trying to reduce the surge— as are Colorado, Kentucky and Michigan — by asking people to file on different days based on the first letter of their last name. Congress has passed a massive relief package that expanded who is eligible for unemployment benefits — adding gig, contract and other part time workers who wouldn’t normally qualify. Benefits are open to others who’ve been impacted, such as workers who were quarantined, left work due to risk of exposure or to care for a family member.
“The system is broken, it’s absolutely broken. I don’t know how people aren’t climbing the walls with frustration,” he said.It takes time to process an application, typically two to three weeks, said Michele Evermore, a senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project. But benefits are retroactive — meaning people will be reimbursed for the full period of unemployment, not just from when their claim is approved.
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