The wait on the unemployment phone line had entered the third hour as she remained on hold on a late-April afternoon.
She had quit staring at the screen and resumed her daily chores. The automated on-hold message piping through the phone speaker became so familiar, she said, she could almost recite it.
But she knew she had to stay on the line.
She had dialed multiple numbers for the state’s unemployment office — 182 times in the previous three weeks — all to reach a busy signal. Being placed on hold was the closest she had gotten to someone solving the problems that held up the unemployment claim she had filed three weeks ago.
“I was just excited that I even got through to be able to be on hold,” she said.
The caller — who returned to work in Columbus as a receptionist last week and wished to remain anonymous for job security concerns — was among the many Mississippians who lost their jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed lives and threatened livelihoods.
In Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Clay and Noxubee counties, at least 8,100 residents have filed for unemployment benefits since the week ending March 21, the earliest when county-level data was available from the Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES).
The state’s weekly number of new claims swelled up to a record high of 45,852 in early April, almost twice the highest point after Hurricane Katrina swept through the state in 2005, data from the Department of Labor shows.
At least 221,000 Mississippians have filed claims for regular unemployment benefits since the week ending March 14, during which the state reported its first case of COVID-19, the latest statistics show. Nationally, at least 33 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits since the pandemic hit the nation, marking a record-high unemployment rate of 14.7 percent since the Great Depression.
Those numbers are believed to be an undercount of the actual jobless Americans, studies indicate, as the numbers exclude many who are ineligible for regular benefits but are now covered by federal programs during the pandemic. Many also are discouraged to file for benefits when faced with a clogged system overwhelmed by the high volume of claims.
In Mississippi, where weekly unemployment benefits range from $30 to $235, the state has now paid roughly $80 million out in regular benefits, shrinking the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund from $710 million in March to $630 million, MDES Executive Director Jackie Turner said Thursday at a Senate Economic and Workforce Development Committee hearing. At least hundreds of millions more have been paid out to Mississippians claiming benefits under other federal programs.
The spike in claims hit MDES when it was lacking staff and administrative funding and created a huge backlog, causing problems as claimants complained about poor communication, system glitches and delayed benefits. The number of pending problems has increased from 900 in early March to more than 43,000, MDES Benefit Payment Chief Jeff Rhodes said during the Thursday hearing.
And despite MDES’s effort to apply for funding, staff additional call centers, add phone lines and revamp the current system, tens of thousands of Mississippians’ benefits remain on hold.
“I have one (constituent) the other day that (was told by operators), ‘I can see your claim right here; I can see what the issue is. You are essentially in limbo land,'” said Sen. Jeremy England (R-Vancleave), vice chairman of the Senate committee. “Nobody should be in limbo land.”
Plagued with problems
For the receptionist, filing her unemployment claim online was effortless.
But days after her filing, the claim was not processed as she had expected. Instead, it was marked as “issue pending.”
“They don’t tell you that on the website, what the issue is,” she said. “They don’t contact you or email you or anything to let you know that there is an issue, this is what it is, and this is what we need to fix the problem.”
After three weeks of dialing, she was eventually placed on a three-hour hold, which led to a hasty answer over the phone that did not make sense to her. The operator was rude, she said. She did not have time to follow up or voice her opinion.
“I finally was able to get through, only to be able to talk to them for five minutes,” she said. “It didn’t solve my problem. Not one bit.”
For the weeks of unemployment, her claim was never processed. Without the benefits, she had to rely on her savings. But with no end in sight at the time, she was worried the money could run out.
“I (didn’t) want to go through every bit of (my savings),” she told The Dispatch. “I do have children; things do come up. I’d like to know that I have a small cushion for emergencies. If we keep having to pay all of (our bills) out of our savings, another month or two, we won’t have it (anymore).”
Others also experienced delays with troubleshooting their claims.
Amy Cloinger, who has returned to work as an eye clinic technician in Columbus, said she could not even access her claim after she filed in late March.
“(The system) would just kick me off the website,” she said. “It would never let me log in. Everything that could happen, it happened.”
Cloinger called five different numbers every day for two weeks looking for help, but could never get through.
“It was terrible, honestly,” she said. “The line was busy each time. I would give it a shot for about 30 minutes, and I would get frustrated, and then I’m like, ‘You know what? Forget it.'”
Amy and Alan Taylor, both of whom have returned to work at Zachary’s Restaurant in Columbus after six weeks of unemployment, were also held back by unspecified pending issues on their accounts. Luckily, after three days of unsuccessful calls, Amy finally got in touch with MDES via email.
“It turned out that they didn’t have Zachary’s LLC number,” Amy said. “That’s all it was — one tiny little bit of information.”
Amy’s husband eventually received his benefits in early May. Amy, however, is still waiting for hers to arrive.
“Like a lot of people, we live paycheck to paycheck, so this was a serious thing for us,” she said. “But we were so blessed to have family and friends who helped us. We didn’t go without anything we needed. We had food, paid our bills and made it through.”
But for some, not getting the unemployment check was more problematic.
Katie Braswell, who has gone back to work at Ashley Furniture in Columbus after more than a month of unemployment, had to use her $1,200 federal stimulus check to stay afloat, while waiting three weeks for her unemployment benefits.
“Really, the only thing that got me through was the $1,200 stimulus money,” she said. “Without that, it would have been a bad situation.”
‘These people needed it yesterday’
The spike of claims arrived, Turner said at the Thursday hearing, when her department had its least amount of staff and funding because of a good economy and a 5.3 percent unemployment rate before the virus hit.
MDES has now expanded to three call centers with at least thousands of phone lines manned by 450 staff members, Turner said. Roughly 950 staff members and “helpers” now have access to the state’s unemployment insurance system, she said.
But the addition is still not enough to accommodate the surging demand that burdens the phone system.
“When you have different lines or phone systems that have unlimited lines, they fill up,” Turner said. “They are jammed. No one could get to us on anything.”
The system, which lumps together agency lines and call center lines, needs to be upgraded, Turner said, but the department is still working on the replacement.
Meanwhile, hiring staff members to deal with private unemployment information requires caution, she said.
The hiring process may also be slower than usual amid the pandemic, said Timothy Rush, reemployment assistance director at MDES. The department has expanded its investigations team from a staff between 25 and 30 to a team of 70 to 80 full-time investigators, he said.
Since the pandemic, Rhodes said, 70 percent of the decisions on claims were made “timely” within 21 days as required by law. Among all the claimants who filed for continued benefits this week, he said, 80 percent of them received benefits.
For Mississippians left in limbo when their claims are held up by unspecified pending issues, Rush said MDES usually notifies claimants what the issue is, but the notification can come in various forms, even “written correspondence.”
The department is trying to program the online system to adjust to different types of claims, he said, which now covers benefits under other federal programs in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. MDES is also sending out information via social media and email blasts, he said.
But for those with poor internet access or without computers, Rush said, it can still be challenging.
For committee member Sen. Juan Barnett (D-Heidelberg), imminent help needs to arrive.
“Today is really late,” he said Thursday. “These people needed it yesterday.”
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