Long Island resident Lynn Sakyiama started her unemployment application online shortly after being furloughed by Staples in mid-March. By last weekend, the single mother ran out of blood pressure medicine and saw a negative balance in her bank account. She’s spoken to a New York Department of Labor representative, but after a month without work, Sakyiama doesn’t know if she’s successfully filed her unemployment claim and can’t reach the DOL to find out.
“I've reached out on Twitter. They said I would be contacted but still nothing,” Sakyiama told Gothamist. “I live paycheck to paycheck. I have no savings, and I spent my tax return on supplies for my child and my elderly parents. I just want to survive.”
Sakyiama’s financial uncertainty mirrors that of residents across the state, as recently laid off workers still struggle to file for unemployment and wait to receive benefits. Between the weeks ending March 14th and April 11th, 1.2 million New Yorkers have filed unemployment claims—a number far greater than the 300,000 who submitted unemployment claims during the 2008 financial crisis.
New York’s Department of Labor has struggled under the burden of incoming unemployment claims since Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive order shutting down non-essential businesses took effect. The DOL has added 2,700 workers to process unemployment applications, expanded the hours jobless individuals can file claims, and sent $2.2 billion to 1.1 million unemployed New Yorkers.
As calls overwhelmed phone lines and cascading web traffic caused the DOL website to repeatedly crash, Cuomo announced that the state had retained assistance from Google, Deloitte, and Verizon to speed up claims processing with a “Tech Surge.”
Yet despite those fixes, many New Yorkers told Gothamist they remain unable to complete an unemployment application.
“The whole thing is a complete Kafkaesque mess,” said Brooklyn resident Courtney Henley, who runs media events for small businesses. Henley, who began attempting to file for benefits while recovering from COVID-19 last month, has been unable to login to the website or reach a DOL representative for assistance. On Tuesday, she managed to reset her password.
Self-employed individuals, freelancers and others newly eligible for unemployment benefits due to the federal CARES Act described a fraught situation, as their funds dwindle and bills mount. Though Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) offers a financial buoy to such workers, the process for obtaining assistance presented bureaucratic hurdles, as they were required to apply for UI, get rejected, and then resubmit for PUA.
On Monday, New York announced the rollout of a streamlined filing process that enables residents to apply for UI and PUA through a single form. The DOL laid blame on the Trump administration for the inefficiencies linked to PUA benefits.
Neither the governor’s office nor the DOL confirmed if any PUA funds had been distributed to applicants who do not qualify for UI.
Lynn Sakyiama has been trying to access unemployment benefits since mid-March, when she was laid off by Staples at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Payment delays and filing backlogs, though, have fueled skepticism of the New York government’s efforts. Brooklyn resident Jazmine Alzado said that, after filing a claim online, she received notice that the DOL would call her back within 72 hours—a system implemented as part of the “Tech Surge” to simplify filing. More than a week later, she’s still waiting.
“I have no faith in getting a call back,” said Alzado. “I have never been unemployed, I have always paid taxes. I vote, I do whatever I can to be a responsible citizen. And this is how the [government] is treating me.”
A backlog of 275,000 partially completed applications identified on April 8th had been reduced to just 4,305 by Monday, according to the governor’s office. Brooklyn resident Jenna Hanshe, who contracted COVID-19 the week she lost her job, is still waiting for help.
Since March 16th, “I have called probably 3,000 to 5000 times with no answer,” Hanshe said. “[I] finally got a call a week ago verifying everything, and I am still unable to claim benefits. When I call the number, it says my claim is incomplete and I need to speak with a representative.”
But even after successfully completing a claim—a process Hanshe described as a “living nightmare”—applicants then wait an estimated two to three weeks in order to receive money.
More than a month after successfully filing, many residents said they see a page indicating their benefits are pending. Out of work and tired of calling the DOL, unemployed New Yorkers have started contacting their elected representatives.
Though the state has guaranteed that New Yorkers will receive backdated unemployment payments, anxiety caused by the delayed benefits is exacting a mental toll. Concerns have shifted from paying the next month’s rent to paying for food, medicine or health needs.
“My family needs help,” said Bronx resident Agnes Santos, who has asked a friend for funds while waiting to file an unemployment claim. “My mom is in the hospital due to pneumonia.”
Mike Desposito co-founded a Facebook group for people struggling to file for unemployment since the pandemic began. The group has grown to more than 24,000 people in less than a month.
“You have a whole society that doesn't have money, can’t work, you're saying they can’t even get work, because they not allowed to leave their houses, but now you’re not paying them,” Desposito said. “It’s a very immobilizing feeling that people are getting, and it’s resulting in civil unrest.”
The Cuomo administration points out that New York has provided more money than other states responding to the countrywide surge in unemployment. California has paid $975 million from March 15 to April 11. Florida has paid $143.2 million between March 15 and April 21.
Jack Sterne, a spokesperson for Cuomo’s office, emphasized the difficulty of adapting the state’s antiquated unemployment system to handle such an unexpected influx.
“No one is denying the unemployment system needed to be improved – every state is facing this challenge – but we’re adapting in real time and delivering benefits faster and more aggressively than any other large state.”
