To the Editor:
Dear sir, please be advised today, that I have been out of work since March of 2020, I am self-employed and did not realize that I could qualify for unemployment. However when I learned it, I began applying and was refused several times telling me I did not qualify. I was not given the link to the pandemic. Ultimately I did get a link to the pandemic and was approved. That was in October, and talking to someone through the DEO on the phone, I was told that my effective date would be caught up automatically in the computer system. This never happened. I was told to continue to call in once or twice a week as I had never been able to access any information with the online account. This went on through the holidays, I kept calling every week or two or three times a week, until March of this year, and I learned that not only had my effective date not been changed, but rather that I became locked out of my account with connect in mid March. They required identity verification through ID.me. Although it took three times, ultimately I got a screen that said my identity verification was a success. I was awaiting an email in 3 to 5 days to let me know I could get back into my account This never happened. Approximately a week and a half later I attempted again to go through the ID.me program and it kept asking for a verification. I tried several times – during all of this, my purse was stolen, or lost and I no longer have ID or my social security card. I began writing emails to let everyone know this fact – that might have been my biggest mistake! I was told over and over to submit my ID again which I explained I did not have. I waited and waited and tried everything I could do, submitting every piece of information I had to prove who I was, including my parents marriage license from the 1950’s, my baptismal record from the early 1970’s, my children’s birth certificates, car titles, car insurance, registrations, old bills, new bills, W-2’s going back several years. All to know avail. I recently began emailing our state representatives, who claimed they would help me. As of last Thursday, low and behold my account was unlocked and although it was unlocked it only offered me two weeks to collect … mind you I have not collected a dime since March 20, 2020. I was able to collect the two weeks prior to the job search beginning. When I went back in to attempt to put in to collect the back pay that I had not received – I found I was locked out of my account – again. So as of Friday afternoon, I can no longer access my account again. I am living with no power and no water, I am a 56-year-old female and I have never collected unemployment before although I have worked my entire life. I feel this is very unfair, it was difficult for me to even ask for the unemployment in the first place, but I was desperate. I need my money desperately. And was continuously promised that my effective date would be changed, and I would receive the monies going back to my last day of employment, March 29, 2020. Please help me. Please.
Ruth Gill
Astor
Would you like to share your thoughts with us? Share them in a comment or by writing a Letter to the Editor.