Georgians ground down by waits for unemployment assistance

Many Georgians who lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic and filed for unemployment payments have yet to see a cent, though the federal government pumped millions of extra dollars into the state.

They’ve waited for months, with bills piling up, as Labor Commissioner Mark Butler’s overwhelmed staff has tried to catch up. Two million claims for unemployment have poured into the office since mid-March. Despite the addition of extra workers — retirees, contractors and interagency transfers — the department has not come close to eliminating the backlog or answering all the requests for information and updates.

Lauren Crace, who recently left Hall County and moved to Florida, decided to help. The 33-year-old started a Facebook support group, called Georgia Unemployment Issues COVID-19, for those wending their way through the unemployment maze to share information, tips and hope. It has grown to 8,000 members.

“It took off because people were desperate,” Crace said.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution talked to her and five other members of the Facebook group to learn more about their experiences with the Georgia Department of Labor.

Crace lost her job, and Florida denied her unemployment claim because she had earned most of her income in Georgia the previous tax year. Crace applied in Georgia on April 26 and received unemployment payments two weeks later. But she remembered the help she had received on a Florida-centric Facebook group focused on navigating that state’s glitchy, overwhelmed system. So she created one for Georgians.

It’s been great, she said, to see Facebook

messages from people after they finally receive payments. But she has also seen posts signaling despair:

“I can’t pay my bills. I haven’t got a dime.”

“We don’t have food in my house. It’s hard to support a 1-year old with no payment from unemployment and no job!”

“Someone (from the state Department of Labor) called me last Monday and told me someone would call me this week, but I don’t have time for that. I’m homeless with two little kids. It’s been over two months, and I don’t know what to do.”

“I am really running out of options here.”