Some still wait for jobless benefits
Hitting redial over and over, only to be greeted by the familiar sound of a busy signal.
Hopefully checking your bank account day after day, being let down each time. Burning through your savings while wondering how you’re going to pay your bills or buy groceries.
Emails gone unanswered. Online chats that instantly kick you off.
The coronavirus pandemic, and the statewide business shutdown it caused, forced millions into unemployment. And for many in Berks County and across Pennsylvania that has meant a boatload of frustrations and headaches.
Officials from the state Department of Labor & Industry, buried under a tidal wave of claims, say it simply hasn’t been able to catch up with all claims.
Since March, nearly 2.3 million Pennsylvania residents
have filed for unemployment benefits. The agency said that the state has paid nearly $25 billion to about 90% of those who have been deemed eligible for benefits and have received at least one payment.
Based on those numbers, that means there could be some 225,000 workers who were either deemed ineligible or who are still waiting to speak with someone about their claims.
Many of those workers say they still can’t get an explanation. And as they hear from friends and colleagues that other claims have been approved, they want to know why their claims have been unanswered after so much time.
‘So infuriating’
Morgantown resident Kerri Hardy has worked hard for over the last three decades for everthing she has.
Before the pandemic hit she was working three jobs.
There was the salon she has owned and operated for the last 18 years at Oakshire Senior Apartments in Reading, the clients she serves at another salon and the few hours a week she picks up at a cleaning service.
But that all ended in March.
So she filed a claim in May when the state launched a special portal for those who own their own business and others typically not eligible for regular unemployment compensation. But since she works multiple jobs she thought it might be best to call an agent from the department to get clarification on how to fill out the claim properly.
After spending hours waiting to talk to someone, she was finally able to get some answers and believed her claim was headed in the right direction.
Hardy felt relieved when she received a message a few days later informing her that she had been approved, but there were just a few more details about her business that they needed to get the process moving. She said she filled out those forms and faxed them to the number she had been given.
But then she heard nothing more. A few weeks later she received a letter stating that the approval had been vacated without providing a reason.
“I about hit the fan when I got that letter,” she said. “It turns out that the woman I spoke to had my information all messed up. And I’m still without any income all this time later.”
Hardy said she’s baffled as to what happened.
In the meantime, she said her savings are running dangerously low and there has been no word on when she might be able to return to her salon. While salons have been permitted to open and operate, the retirement community where her shop is remains under lockdown conditions.
“This is so infuriating,” she said. “I have been told that I cannot operate the business where I make most of my money, but now these elderly people are being forced out of the building to get their hair done. How is that safe?”
‘Doing all we can’
Labor & Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak said last week that the department has been working as quickly and effectively as possible to process the unprecedented number of unemployment claims.
Oleksiak said the biggest challenge in the beginning was that the 770-person department had too few people to process the claims in a timely manner. He said staff was rightly sized for a relatively good economy with record low unemployment, but was not prepared when the pandemic hit.
He pointed out that there were 40,000 new claims filed during the three weeks before the statewide shutdown was ordered, and in the first three weeks after the shutdown there were over 1 million claims filed.
There were also some logistical problems the department has faced getting people set up to work from home and working with an outside vendor to build the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance filing system from scratch.
“We have been working hard to get caught up,” he said. “It’s frustrating for us as well. We are very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish up to this point, but obviously we’re not satisfied.”
The department has been bolstered by new employees, and now has 1,600 people working to clear the claims. Staff has worked 182,000 overtime hours, Olesiak said.
Olesiak said his staff has responded to more than 545,000 emails, answered more than 243,000 phone calls, performed almost 110,000 live chats and have had a virtual assistant respond to 250,000 questions since March 15. They have also hosted seven virtual town halls for those seeking more information.
And the department has created an online troubleshooting guide for people based on the issues they have heard and what are the most commonly asked questions.
“We’ve been as accessible and transparent as I think we could be,” he said. “We know that people are frustrated. This isn’t just numbers on paper to us, this is real and our staff cares very much about making sure we can get people the benefits they’re entitled to.”
Olesiak said that when there’s a problem with a claim it needs to be reviewed manually, which can be a very time-consuming process. He said the last thing they want is for someone to pick up the phone and tell the person on the other end of the line that they don’t know how to help them.
“We are answering this as quickly as possible, and we’re going to see a real improvement in that as we bring new people online,” he said. “It’s not an easy thing to learn. It’s not the kind of thing we can give people a script and tell them to go answer phones.
“The training for our new folks can take as long as eight weeks and we’ve done what we can to pare that down.”
Complicating the process even more, Olesiak said, is that Pennsylvania was one of many states scrambling to stop scammers from stealing millions of dollars in fraudulent claims. He said the department is working with other state and federal agencies to put a stop to the fraud by halting some claims for further review.
While it’s been a tough road so far, Olesiak said there is some good news to share. He said the number of claims is starting to level off and the number of calls are starting to decrease.
Olesiak said the department is prioritizing older claims, as well as keeping an eye out for questions they receive that could be resolved quickly.
“We have not forgotten about these people,” he said. “We care about these people. We understand that these people are our family and friends and we know the toll this pandemic has taken on everyone.
“We can’t fix it all at one time. We’re getting better, the system is becoming more responsive, we are bringing more people in. It’s just going to take more time.”
Tales of desperation
Hans Arndt checks his claim status online every morning. Then he checks his bank account to see if anything has been deposited.
Day after day the result has been the same: nothing.
The Reading resident has called, he has sent emails, he has tried to chat online with an agent about what the hold up could be. Time after time the result has been the same: nothing.
“I don’t know what else to do,” he said. “I was fortunate to have some savings before all of this, but those savings are running out. Three months is a long time to go without a paycheck.”
Arndt, who has been furloughed since April from his position at the Berks County Courthouse, said he has done his best to stretch his money as far as he can but could soon be in jeopardy of defaulting on his mortgage if he’s forced to wait longer.
“I feel kind of helpless,” he said, noting that he has even contacted his state representatives for assistance. “No one knows what the problem could be or what else I could be doing.”
Roberta Jewell would file unemployment claims during the holiday season when schools shut down for winter break. So she said she knew the state system had a few quirks.
But the Pottsgrove School District bus driver never had a problem getting paid. The tidal wave of claims brought on by the pandemic, however, may have proved too much.
Jewell said she’s tried to be patient. But now that so many other people have gotten benefits and the state has begun reporting that the number of claims is dropping, she’s getting more and more frustrated.
“I now send an email twice a day asking what could be taking so long,” the Reading resident said. “It’s virtually impossible to get any answers. I think the system was inadequate before this so when this happened it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Amanda Swoyer is supposed to be excited, she is supposed to be happy.
The 30-year-old Shillington woman is pregnant with her first child. But focusing on that in times like these has been difficult.
She was laid off from her job as a pet groomer at the Petco in Wyomissing in late March and has been waiting for unemployment benefits ever since. And, up until two weeks ago, her husband was in the same boat before finally receiving cash from the state.
“If it wasn’t for the help of our family and friends we wouldn’t even have a crib right now,” she said. “This has been such a stressful time to be pregnant and going through the worst crisis we have ever faced.”
Swoyer said it was a trying experience.
“I feel so embarrassed that we had to ask for help,” she said. “We have basically been living off ramen noodles for the past three months. It has been so hard.”
Swoyer said she was going back to work this week, although with her due date a few weeks away her return could be brief. Hopefully, she added, her husband will land a new job before the baby arrives.
Samantha Gehringer is starting to feel like the state has abandoned her and overlooked her daily requests for help. And that’s something the single mother of two cannot afford.
“I’ve been forgotten,” she said. “I have yet to speak to a human being, I get kicked off the website and no one will answer when I call. There’s been days when I didn’t know what I was going to feed my kids for dinner.”
The Reading woman, who was out of work for three months while the salon she works at was forced to close down, said forcing people to wait this long for money they are rightfully entitled to is inhumane.
“No one seems to care that my kids are starving,” she said, noting that the first paycheck she gets now that she has returned to work will be used to fill her pantry. “I think it’s outrageous that I’m going to have to keep treading water until the state gets it together.”
‘Heavy-hearted’ lawmaker
State Rep. Jim Cox, a Spring Township Republican, is trying to figure out how to deal with the problems bogging down the unemployment system.
The Labor & Industry Committee, on which Cox serves as chairman, addresses legislation that helps shape the business climate and laws governing the workforce, including unemployment.
So far, Cox said, pinpointing the causes of the problems has not been easy because each claim is so unique.
“I don’t have a definitive answer to why this is happening,” he said.
Cox said there are some instances of user error like someone entered their Social Security number inaccurately or entered the employer name differently than it is in the system. But, he added, they’re finding the vast majority of problems have shown themselves to be technology issues.
“As we have worked with the department as much as possible, there’s an ongoing question of whether we pull the firefighters away from
the fire to ask them why the fire isn’t out yet,” he said. “This is one of the worst unemployment crises in modern history. And the Monday-morning quarterbacking doesn’t help.”
Cox said his committee will be holding hearings in the coming weeks to take a closer look at the issues still plaguing the system, why the department chose to contract with the vendor who created the system and what the office needs to fix the issues.
In the meantime, Cox said the committee has focused its attention on helping the department find solutions rather than dwelling on what went wrong.
“Listen, the bottom line is that we can either drag them in front of us to tell them how horrible this is going or we can try to work with them to fix the problems,” he said.
Cox said he understands the frustration of those who are still waiting on their benefits and wants to assure them that the issue is his top priority right now.
“It’s heart-breaking when you realize how many people have not received anything,” he said. “In the past 14 years in office, my staff and I have never gone home so heavy-hearted as we have these last several months.”