Nevadans head back to work, but still no unemployment pay

North Las Vegas resident Kim Morgan-Smith is on pace to receive her first payroll check in two months.

She’s still waiting for the state to finish paying out her unemployment benefits.

“I’m concerned that I may never get those payments,” she said, adding that she’s been partially paid and is owed for five weeks.

Morgan-Smith went back to work at child care center Watch Me Grow last week and was approved for unemployment insurance nearly two months ago.

Nevada entered Phase Two of Gov. Steve Sisolak’s reopening plan Friday. As businesses are welcoming back employees, many are wondering if they’ll ever receive their missing state unemployment pay for the weeks they were out of work.

Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation Director Heather Korbulic said during a Friday morning news briefing claimants can expect to receive back payments.

Laura Antidormi, who works for a technology firm in Enterprise, needs benefits for one week. She’s been waiting for two months.

“I hate to say it — it’s almost a joke,” she said.

Antidormi was laid off in February and started applying for jobs. She filed for benefits in April since she received severance pay, but was able to find a new job and only needed a week’s worth of benefits. However, her claim has been tagged with a “deductible income” issue.

“I’ve sent emails, I’ve faxed my pay stubs like they wanted along with my severance letter,” Antidormi said. “It’s a blessing I was able to find work during a shutdown but single parents or homes where both people have lost income — I couldn’t even imagine. I get chills.”

Still waiting

It’s no secret the unemployment office has been burdened by the number of jobless claims after the closure of nonessential businesses and casinos in March and this spike has led to significant delays in processing unemployment claims for regular filers.

There have been a total of 495,840 initial claims filed this year through last week — completely beating the number of claims filed in any full calendar year in state history.

DETR also reported this week Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the country at a seasonally adjusted rate of 28.2 percent in April.

“The largest impact was felt in Las Vegas with an unemployment rate over 33 percent and a decline in employment near 21 percent,” DETR Chief Economist David Schmidt said in a news release.

Las Vegan and bartender Alexis Cossman said she filed for benefits March 15 when Sisolak mandated the closure of casinos and nonessential businesses.

She has not been able to receive any benefits because her claim has an outstanding issue. Cossman said she was finally able to connect with a DETR employee last week to try to have her claim fixed.

“They said they fixed it and put everything through,” she said. “We’ll see, but I’ve been told that since March.”

While she hasn’t gone back to work, she’s started applying for jobs and had a couple interviews last week.

“I’ve used up every ounce of my savings,” she said. “I have $8. I’ve had every extension possible to halt my bills. It’s to a point where I’m actually having to fight to prove that I haven’t received unemployment (and) I’m not lying and prove that I haven’t been called back to work yet.”

Contact Subrina Hudson at shudson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @SubrinaH on Twitter.