LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Campbellsville, Ky. resident Ben Bolden said he was on the phone in May with a Kentucky unemployment insurance staffer, who told him his claim filed in late March could only be sorted out by a “Tier 3” specialist.
At least a month went by.
Bolden, who has five kids in his home and a sixth for whom he pays child support, had given up hope that he was ever getting out of the unemployment call center “queue” and on the phone with a human “Tier 3” employee who could finally resolve the problem holding up his benefits. Bolden said he had a job trimming trees for utility work, but couldn’t keep working because the pandemic left him without childcare.
Then, at 11:03 p.m. last Tuesday, an email arrived from a “workforce development consultant” at the Kentucky Career Center: After more than two months, Bolden’s unemployment benefits were finally “triggered to be released.” In the next two days, more than $5,000 appeared in his bank account.
“I actually was so excited I could have cried. I just couldn’t go to sleep ... It was just unfathomable how much a weight was lifted off my shoulders,” Bolden told WDRB in an interview Tuesday.
Bolden’s name is one of 763 WDRB has collected and forwarded to Gov. Andy Beshear’s office since May 21, when Beshear said during a live interview that he wanted to know about people who needed help getting unemployment benefits.
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For this story, we checked on the status of the first 325 people we sent to Beshear’s office between May 21 and June 4. (We sent another 438 names on Monday).
Of the initial 325 people we first reported to Beshear’s office, 161 have told us on the phone, by email or through an online survey that they have received payments or otherwise resolved their claim.
Another 47 told us that they’d gotten some help but no payments yet, while 80 reported no help at all.
“This is frustrating as hell; bills on top of bills is stacking up,” said Tamera Brooks, a 39-year-old fast-food restaurant worker in west Louisville, who said she has been trying to get unemployment checks since April.
A Beshear spokesman said the state has been working through the list of unemployment claimants sent by WDRB, contacting all the people submitted from May 21 to June 4.
While the numbers Beshear spokesman Sebastian Kitchen provided Monday don’t quite agree with ours, Kitchen said 116 of the people have been paid or have a payment in progress.
Another 76 claims are in review because of issues like “overpayment, failed ID test and employer protest,” he said.
The state couldn’t find claims for 25 on our list, while another 15 simply needed to request a payment, he said. He said the state determined that 5 people were “ineligible.”
“Gov. Beshear and this administration know thousands of our fellow Kentuckians haven’t received their unemployment yet, are hurting and need help,” Kitchen said. “This is unacceptable and he continues to demand the Office of Unemployment Insurance act swiftly to ensure those Kentuckians receive the much-needed help.”
‘Committed to doing better’
Beshear, who has been profusely apologetic for months about issues processing the surge in jobless claims, said during his media briefing Monday that, of the 892,355 claims state received in March, April and May, 52,692 remain unprocessed.
That includes 7,566 claims dating to March, when the coronavirus pandemic took hold and restaurants, stores, daycares and other businesses were closed overnight.
Beshear said Monday his administration is working on “new strategies” to speed up the processing of jobless claims. Beshear is moving unemployment insurance to state Labor Cabinet, which he said will be make for a better administrative home than the Education and Workforce Cabinet.
Labor cabinet employees are suited to deal with unemployment insurance and the state is “looking at the possibility of outside help,” Beshear said.
“We have got to, not only continue to process these, but we need to move faster,” Beshear said. “I think we all agree on that. Many people have been waiting far too long. And I am committed not just to owning it, but when you own it, I think it makes you committed to doing better.”
About 46% of Kentucky’s pre-pandemic workforce has filed for jobless benefits since March, the second-highest rate in the nation behind Georgia (51%), according to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce analysis of federal data.
State comparisons need to be considered cautiously, however, because of differences in how states report recipients of the federal “Pandemic Unemployment Assistance” and other federally funded special programs in the CARES Act virus-relief package.
Rochelle Cheatham, a mom who lost her job at a Bullitt County childcare center, said she finally received unemployment benefits last week. While Cheatham was on WDRB’s list, she also once sent 62 emails in one day to the state’s unemployment assistance account, she said.
“I just kept copying and pasting and would send the same one over and over again,” Cheatham said. “You got to do what you got do.”
