State unemployment office promises tripled work force by end of next week

Staffing at the state Division of Employment Security started at 500, and the division says it added 403 people in recent weeks, including a third call center contracted for with a private company.

People continue to tell WRAL News, though, that they can't get through to the call centers to deal with a range of issues on their claims. By the end of next week, the division promised another 600 private call center agents and that another 100 people will be added from the state's temporary employee service.

"You have to weekly certify, and that’s got to get approved before the government will pay you, and we’ve been trying for over three weeks, since March 23, to weekly certify," said Richard Meyers, noting both he and his wife have been laid off. "We’ve probably tried 30, 40 different times. I’ve tried on my computer at all times. The last time was a couple days ago at 2 in the morning – still wasn’t able to get through. I tried calling, and actually last week, I was on the phone for six hours, and nobody ever came to the phone."

"I have called repeatedly – a couple, two, three, up to five times a day – trying to talk to somebody, trying to find a way for me to provide whatever information they’re missing," said a woman who identified herself only as April, noting that the DES website still lists her claim as "pending."

"I work because I need to work. I don’t do it for fun. I like my job, but I work because I have to," April said. "So not having my income is a major problem."

The state unemployment system, used to processing some 3,200 claims a week in 2019, has been handling close to 20,000 a day as virus-related closures wreck the state and national economies.

DES said Friday 636,000 claims have been filed since March 16, including more than 19,000 Thursday. The total represents more than 10 percent of the state's civilian work force.

The division said it has sent more than $358 million to some 211,000 claimants.

With the extra manpower, "this will be the largest number of people working to provide unemployment benefits in North Carolina’s history,” Lockhart Taylor, who oversees DES, said in a news release.

In some other states, the National Guard is helping staff unemployment call centers to help deal with their call volume. DES officials said North Carolina has no current plans to use guardsmen to help, but some employees from the state Department of Information Technology and the Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services are helping.

"I understand the predicament. They have been inundated," Meyers said. "I believe they’re trying, and I believe eventually we are going to get through."

"I kind of understand given the situation with COVID-19, but I also feel like it could’ve been done in a better way," said Kendall Martin, who said he was repeatedly kicked off the DES website. "It took a lot to get in contact with them."

Martin said he received his first unemployment check on Thursday after more than three weeks of effort. During that time, he said, he had to delay paying his rent and utilities so he could afford to eat while he had no income.

Vilma Suarez, senior managing attorney for Legal Aid of North Carolina's help line, said unemployment benefits are retroactive to when people apply. So, while frustrating, delays in getting through to DES won't hurt people financially, she said.

"The clock starts when they apply," Suarez said, adding that applicants also can appeal any decisions DES makes that don't go their way.

"If the person is [ruled] ineligible, and it turns out they are eligible, then their benefits are retroactive. They go back to the application," she said.

Self-employed workers stuck waiting for help

But for people who were self-employed or independent contractors, who don't typically pay the unemployment taxes that fund North Carolina's system but are covered by the federal bill, claims won't be accepted until about April 25, DES said.

The timetable is less clear for people who were unemployed before the pandemic hit and recently exhausted their benefits. North Carolina caps benefits at 12 weeks right now, but the federal program will extend that by 13 weeks.

DES hasn't finalized that program yet, though, and said Friday that it's "continuing to work on a timeline" to get this underway.