Record unemployment claims lead to delay in funds

Jesus Diaz’s last day of work at the Flamingo was March 15. He quickly filed for unemployment insurance online and got his debit card in the mail shortly after.

But despite the unemployment office’s website telling him he had more than $450 in weekly benefits, calls to Bank of America revealed the card’s balance remained at $0, days after it had arrived in the mail.

With phone lines at the unemployment office busy, Diaz said he was left in the dark as to why.

“We kept checking (with the bank) and there was nothing there,” said Diaz’s wife, Alejandra Rossignoli, who translated for her husband. And with phone lines tied up at the unemployment offices, Rossignoli said there was no way to have their questions answered.

It wasn’t until Tuesday that Diaz gained access to his unemployment insurance benefits.

Unemployment insurance office spokespeople urge claimants to remain patient as the state handles record-high application volumes, but many grow concerned as they wait for their access to funds in a time with no other source of income and no one answering their phone calls.

Record-high claims

While the cause of delayed access to benefits varies case by case, some are being held up by the adjudication process, according to Rosa Mendez, spokeswoman for the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, which oversees the state’s unemployment insurance program.

After a worker submits an unemployment insurance claim (a process that can already take days, as the system’s phone lines are kept busy), the benefits aren’t automatically sent out by the department, Mendez said.

Instead, a state employee must individually approve each claim as part of the adjudication process.

That means all 92,298 regular initial unemployment insurance claims submitted for the week ending March 21 must be individually reviewed. It’s far more than the office is used to handling at one time; the previous high was 8,945 for the week ending Jan. 10, 2009.

“We’ve never been in this situation before,” Mendez said. “The entire department is experiencing this level (of claimants) for the first time.”

This adjudication process can take place even after a claimant has received a debit card in the mail, causing confusion among some claimants.

A ‘frustrating’ experience

Diaz is far from the only one who’s had to wait to use his debit card.

Mary O’Connor, a former Westgate worker, said she submitted her claim March 19 and received her card in the mail three days later.

It took 12 days before it had access to her benefits, though. While she waited, she said she placed numerous calls to the already overworked unemployment office phone lines and was unable to get through.

O’Connor said she wasn’t worried about making ends meet — she has friends and family in town who would be able to lend her support if needed — but there was only $100 or so left from her last paycheck before the benefits came through.

It was “so frustrating,” she said. “It’s aggravating to everybody I know and work with that they don’t (immediately) hook up the money with the card.”

Rossignoli said she and her husband felt financially stable with her teacher’s salary still coming in. The two have made the most of their new normal, with Rossignoli working from home, their kids doing schoolwork online and Diaz filling his time cooking for the family.

But they know others waiting for their benefits who aren’t so lucky, and still call the unemployment offices daily with little success at getting through.

“There’s no way to talk to anyone,” she said. “(And we don’t know) how long this is going to be. … My husband has friends who are really concerned.”

Contact Bailey Schulz at bschulz@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0233. Follow @bailey_schulz on Twitter.