The state-by-state systems for getting benefits into the hands of the unemployed are stressed, inefficient and not sending money quickly enough to the people who need it.
In Michigan, the state unemployment filing system crashed this week because it was overloaded. In California, it may take much longer than usual for hundreds of thousands of jobless people to get their benefits. In New York, one laid-off worker says she called the state labor department 800 times before getting through.
As previously unimaginable layoff numbers pile up across the country, the state-by-state systems for getting benefits into the hands of people who lost their jobs are stressed, inefficient and not sending money quickly enough to the people who most need it. And it may only get worse: The weekly unemployment figures that will be reported Thursday are expected to climb higher than last week’s record-shattering totals, thrusting more people into already overwhelmed systems.
More companies are also continuing to lay off more workers as a growing number of states issue shelter-in-place orders and consumers curb spending even further. And an ever-larger percentage of gig-economy workers and other independent contractors who did not previously qualify for unemployment benefits — but who now should be covered under the CARES Act — are also clamoring for help under new rules that states themselves are just learning to decipher.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/01/unemployed-workers-benefits-coronavirus-159192