BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) - Diane Blair is still waiting.
Furloughed from her job of six years at the National Corvette Museum on March 17, Blair filed for unemployment April 3. She received a letter that told her she had been approved for unemployment, but 18 weeks later, she still hasn’t received an unemployment check.
As the weeks pass, Blair grows more frustrated – unsure of when or if her unemployment benefits will begin and unable to get answers on why she hasn’t been paid yet.
“They don’t call,” Blair said. “They don’t ask you anything. You can’t reach them. I call every single day, put my name on the key. Nobody ever calls.”
Blair said she has tried everything she can think of to get answers about her situation. She said she has reached out to local legislators and said she talks to the governor’s office twice a week and calls the unemployment help line every day.
“I don’t think there is anybody out there I haven’t tried to reach,” Blair said. “Everyone of them just passes me off to the governor, who puts me on the list and passes me off to the unemployment office, who never contacts me. There is nothing you can do. It’s like you are running in circles.”
In an email response to the Daily News, Kentucky Labor Cabinet Chief of Staff Marjorie Arnold said that since the pandemic began, there have been 1,124,591 claims filed for unemployment insurance. The email said the state has processed more than 90 percent of claims, paying out more than $3.61 billion to Kentuckians since March.
“Ernst & Young (the company helping Kentucky process the backlog of unemployment claims) continues to process the unresolved claims in preparation for UI staff to complete the necessary adjudications,” Arnold said in the email. “To date, Ernst & Young has processed 95,610 claims. Additionally, while ensuring the safety of those needing assistance and (limiting) the spread of COVID-19, in-person unemployment services have been provided to 16,812 people. No one in state government will be satisfied until all Kentuckians have received the unemployment benefits for which they qualify.”
Blair said when she has received a call for the state, it is a recording. She has also tried to reach out via email, but every response has been a “generic email” that thanks her and advises her that due to the high volume of inquiries received they may not be able to respond to every question or the response will be delayed.
“I was really understanding for the first few months, thinking, ‘Oh my god, they are overloaded, these poor people. I have enough money to get by,’ ” Blair said. “They just don’t ever follow through. You figure if you’ll be nice that they will try to do something, but they aren’t going to do anything so it doesn’t matter if you are nice or not. (You think) if you get ornery with them they will put you on the bottom of the list and if you are nice they will try to help you, but they don’t do anything for you.”
Blair said she would like to be able to talk to someone, just to reassure her that everything is OK.
“I would really like to kind of know where it stands,” Blair said. “And it is so frustrating, when you do have a question you want to get an answer to it and there is no avenue for that.”
“April 3 is a long time ago. I am wondering are people applying and they are OK and going through and are they getting money before me? Are they doing them in order? Why am I not being done before these other people? But you can’t find that out either. There is no one that gets to you. I don’t understand.”
Blair added that she has been able to get by to date and hopes to get back to work at the Corvette museum at some point, but would like to have the unemployment benefits she has been waiting for.
“We are retired and have income coming in, but I could really use some of it,” Blair said. “I got the stimulus money. It took me a long time to get that, too, but I did get it – me and my husband. We are both retired so we have some income coming in, but I have other responsibilities other than myself.
“… I need money and I just don’t understand.”
And she is hopeful that voicing her concerns will keep others from suffering the same plight.
“I do hope when this is over they fix whatever is wrong,” Blair said. “This should never happen again. After I get through feeling sorry for me I start thinking about all these young kids, people that are very limited income. Maybe some of these kids don’t have parents to fall back on. They have babies to feed. What are they supposed to do. This should never happen again.”
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