COVID-19: Frustration with unemployment grows as claims continue to be denied
Throughout the entirety of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people across the country are living in fear, wondering when things will go back to how they were.
Over the course of the last six weeks, the U.S. has now lost 26.5 million jobs, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yes, that’s correct: 26.5 million jobs lost.
The average number of unemployment claims made in Ohio alone is higher now than it ever has before, meaning high-volume traffic to the unemployment website and call centres.
This high-volume traffic has made it difficult for unemployment to keep up on claims, which has resulted in many people being denied for unemployment benefits.
Bret Crow, who works for the communications department for Ohio Department of Job & Family Services, emphasizes that this is unlike any situation they’ve ever faced before.
“We continue to receive more than a half million calls a day,” Crow said. “We are closing in on one million claims filed over the last five weeks.”
Among these one million claims, are still people with little answers, as well as fear of not receiving their unemployment benefits.
Austin MacAdam, who has been unemployed for over a month now, has yet to receive his unemployment, despite being initially approved online.
How am I going to pay my bills? That was the very first thing that came to my head, because I had no clue,” MacAdam said. “I had heard of all this stuff going on and they kept talking about how there is no timetable, so it made me very concerned for the future.”
Todd Wright, who is a cook for Applebee’s Bar & Grille, had his hours cut to basically nothing, leaving him with money he saved up previously, while hoping to receive unemployment benefits until he is back to working again.
“Every single time I go to do the weekly claim, it just instantly gets denied,” Wright said.
Like many others, both Wright and MacAdam tried countless times to get ahold of unemployment, only to be stuck on the phone for hours, just to get nowhere.
The last time Wright attempted to call the unemployment office, it didn’t go so well, taking him almost two days just to talk to an actual person.
“Literally, I would get on the phone and I’d still have to wait through the whole teleprompter/robot stuff, and then I’d be on hold for like 20-40 minutes and it would just drop my call.”
When Wright eventually did talk to someone, he was told there was a bug that resulted in people being denied on the website.
“They did say that there was an automated response that was bugged that would automatically deny people,” Wright said. “But, when it denied people, it would actually approve them, but it was denied on the weekly claims.”
MacAdam called unemployment over 30 times, just to get his call dropped after two hours of waiting.
The frustration has grown for many others like Wright and MacAdam. They just want answers.
Even in normal times, it takes about 21 days for claimants to receive their benefits. This is not a normal situation,” Crow said. “Even so, all options are on the table to process claims as quickly as possible.”
Crow went on to say that he simply asks for patience from everyone during the stressful time
“Each claim is important to us. We understand the frustration our website and call center issues have caused during what is already a stressful time,” Crow said. We also understand the urgency of providing Ohioans with the resources they need to support their families.
The large surge of daily callers has resulted in unemployment making major changes to staff, as well as other alternatives to help speed up the process for the thousands of people that need it.
“We have expanded our call center staff from 42 to 1,602 individuals and have plans to launch a virtual call center by the end of this week,” Crow said. “We are continuing to implement innovative approaches to rise to the challenge of this unprecedented demand.”
Unemployment has also launched a new phone workflow that includes an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, which has increased their ability to handle about 6,000 calls concurrently.
“A self-service IVR was also added to reduce the need to speak to an agent when many folks simply want an update on their claim,” Crow said. “With this functionality, they enter their Social Security number and PIN and receive an update.”
https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf
The good news, however, is unemployment is now starting to catch up, clearing over 70,000 pending claims and do expect to make more progress on pending claims day by day.
“So far, we have paid more than $926 million to more than 376,000 claimants, and both of the numbers climb daily,” Crow said.
With the new things they’ve implemented recently, the addition of the PUA program, which is authorized by the CARES Act, will help even more people.
This program will give those who have yet to receive unemployment, or were not approved to receive benefits, a minimum of $600 a week, plus any other benefits they eventually receive from unemployment.
Still, the world will not be back to normal anytime soon. Many will still be without a job while hoping the benefits they receive will be enough to get them through this tough time.
Let’s hope it’s enough.
*Note that Bret Crow was unable to communicate via phone; only email.