Unemployed workers waiting weeks for benefits form support group

It’s been 11 days since Washington state’s Employment Security Department updated its website to include expanded unemployment benefits for part-time workers, certain gig workers, and people who are self-employed.

But many of them—and others under regular unemployment—say they haven’t seen a dime and have formed a Facebook support group to try to get through to the state.

“It’s called the Washington Unemployment Support group,” member Katie Lodge said. “There are over 700 members now and we’re all sharing tips such as—'here’s new contact information.’ Or-- ‘try emailing these people or this agency.’ We share tips about autodialer apps so you can keep calling.”

Lodge, a single mother of three and Marine Corps veteran, is a nursing student who worked on campus and as a yoga instructor. She was laid off from both jobs after the governor issued his stay home order.

“It’s been a struggle. I have my little guy at home here with me,” she said, holding her 4-year-old, “and looking at him and wondering what the future holds for us -- it can be a little bit scary.”

She immediately applied for unemployment benefits, despite knowing that she didn’t qualify for the regular benefits.

“I was denied, which I knew would happen, and invited to apply for the pandemic assistance, or PUA,” she said.

That’s the federal stimulus benefits extending to part-time workers, which was launched on the ESD website on April 18.

“Since then, there's been no activity,” she said. “No communication.”

Lodge called dozens of times but couldn’t reach anyone.

“Each time I call, I’m hearing the same recorded messages which essentially say, ‘We’re very sorry, we’re experiencing a high volume of calls, and goodbye,’” she said.

Joe Allen works in car sales and had just recently moved to a new company when he was laid off due to the pandemic. He still hasn’t received his unemployment benefits.

“Going on seven weeks now,” he said. “You have to call 300 times before you get through. Sometimes you get through, you're on hold for three hours, then it'll disconnect you.”

Allen said he was last able to reach someone a month ago but back then, they told him to be patient and wait.

Patience and money are running low as people try to get by and budget as best they can.

“Watching the amount of water and electricity we use to keep those bills low,” Lodge said, “negotiating with other people that I have to pay, like my phone bill -- I had to negotiate that.”

Nick Demerice with the Employment Security Department says each case is unique. But he suggests that people with cases like Katie’s should ensure they're filing weekly claims and checking their spam filter and alerts. She says she's done that.

“The one bit of good news I can give there -- every day we are resolving thousands of these issues, one way or another,” he said. “People are getting paid. And that's thousands of people who don't have to call the claims center anymore and so they don’t have to compete for those limited phone spots.”

KIRO 7 also asked Demerice about cases like Joe’s, in which people started a new job and were quickly laid off due to the pandemic.

“That is absolutely one of the issues we’re looking into,” he said, “and seeing if we can do some bigger things to be able to clear out a bunch of those all at once.”

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