Many people are struggling to get unemployment benefits here in Central New York, or they’re waiting weeks to find out if they qualify. One East Syracuse woman’s dilemma goes even deeper.
New York’s labor department is getting flooded with calls for unemployment benefits, at the peak almost a million calls a day, compared to 50,000-a-week before the shutdown.
Governor Cuomo says the state has boosted the number of processors from about 400 to 3100 to help people get signed up.
“Every state is overwhelmed and trying to design new technology and new apps. Our state actually is doing much better than the other states in how many people haven’t been able to sign up.”
That’s little comfort for Tara Willmann. Back in early March, she was doing fine as a hair stylist at Cliptomaniauntil the shop closed just days before all salons were shut down. She understood the need to do so.
“We’re face-to-face in people’s personal bubbles all day. We didn’t want ot have to pick who we could take as clients like, ‘well this person’s coughing and this person’s sick so we’re going to take this (other) person.’”
She was given two weeks of pay by her boss, then filed for unemployment the April 1st.
“You just wait and you wait and if you call, you never get a person. So, I was just patient, and patient, and waiting, and drowning in bills.”
Then she finally heard from the New York Department of Labor, a mailing that included one page with another person’s name, social security number and other sensitive information.
“I was just flabbergasted that something like this could happen through a government agency,' said Willmann. "But my first thought was, ‘who’s got my personal information?’ I’m not going to steal his identity because I’m a good human being but who’s to say who gets my personal information and do something with it.”
State Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon acknowledged the problem.
“This was a mechanical error; it was a mail-sorting machine. It was not malicious. We’ve reached out to everyone and out of an abundance of caution, we’re offering credit monitoring and identity theft surveillance to everyone who was in this mailing.”
Those efforts aren’t really building much confidence in Willmann, who did get contacted about the mail snafu, but is still waiting for an answer to her unemployment claim … and now has waning confidence the system can efficiently and successfully process it.
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR ADVICE
State Department of Laborofficials say the top reason unemployment claims are held up is the lack of the Federal Employer ID Number. The department is reaching out to employers to make sure they are following the law and informing their workers of the FEIN number. The also say direct deposit gets benefits to recipients more quickly.
Specific rules and changes for filing for unemployment benefits due to the COVID Pandemic HERE.
