Jobless complain trying to verify identity preventing them from getting unemployment benefits

North Carolina and 21 other states hired a company called ID.me to verify filers are who they say they are. But the service has driven a wave of new complaints about the difficulty in obtaining benefits.

"I’m in heart failure, I’m in cardiac failure being treated at Rex," Tex Stadiem said in a voicemail to WRAL Investigates. "My only source of income is my North Carolina unemployment. Please help me."

After the pandemic halted his watch sales and repair business, Stadiem said he relied on unemployment benefits to survive.

"Everything was fine until I had to verify my identity, and that’s when the nightmare started," he said. "I was beyond frustrated."

Because he no longer drives, an expired driver’s license held up verification, even though he offered various other forms of ID.

Stadiem said he tried to submit anything he could, "including my baby foot ink print."

Countless calls and emails got him nowhere.

"I knew I was in trouble," he said. "They had cut off all funds, and there was no resolution in sight, and my frustration level became overwhelming."

Stadiem was far from alone in his struggle. Several NBC affiliates around the country also heard from people with similar experiences.

"We’re constantly trying to improve our experience with our users. We hear the criticisms and the requests for more information, and so we’re improving our platform on a daily basis," ID.me Vice President Pete Eskew told WRAL Investigates.

Eskew pointed out that 90 percent of unemployed applicants get through the system in five minutes. Still, the company has hired 500 employees to help improve service and plans to double that.

ID.me is needed to weed out a huge fraud problem with unemployment benefits, he said.

Raleigh man waits months for unemployment fraud to be resolved so he can get benefits

"You’re seeing 30 to 50 percent, – [basically] every other person is applying for benefits that they do not deserve," Eskew said. "We simply ask for people’s patience to help understand this is the reality that we’re all in right now."

Stadiem said there has to be a better way.

"They’re harming people, and they should be helping people," he said.

His benefits were cut for three weeks before a state Division of Employment Security supervisor helped prove he, among many, is no fraudster.

"They need to be responsible to a higher authority, and I don’t mean six months from now," he said. "This is serious business keeping people financially alive."

A Division of Employment Security spokeswoman said the state is sticking with ID.me and is working to improve the verification experience.