Unemployment Struggles in New Jersey

May 9, 2021 Matthew Buchicchio COVID-19, Top News 0

By MATTHEW BUCHICCHIO

Dave Birgathi, 52, was one of the people who lost his job in the catering business of the Grand Hyatt in New York City last year because of Covid. He is still receiving unemployment benefits, or is supposed to. Birgathi had been struggling for over a month to revive any unemployment benefits after his initial round of benefits was disbanded at the end of March of this year.

“It really was one problem after another, and I know it wasn’t just me, many of my former co-workers who’ve lost their jobs because of Covid can attest, it’s a broken system,” he added.

Unemployment Situation in NJ

It has been around one year now that almost 24 million Americans signed up for unemployment benefits. With the pandemic still ongoing and millions of Americans still waiting for checks and other unemployment benefits, problems in the system persist. In New Jersey alone, the numbers have been staggering, with a record-breaking 2,034,337 new jobless in the past year, one of the highest numbers in the country. 

Many New Jerseyans say they are still encountering difficulties filing for unemployment benefits nearly one year into the pandemic. While Gov. Phil Murphy says the state has fixed any “systemic” issues and all remaining problems are “individual.”   The state claims that this is the latest in a string of problems for the state Labor Department, which runs the unemployment insurance system.

The department has been overwhelmed by more than 1.1 million people filing for benefits since March 15 2020. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, at its height in the week ending May 9 of 2020, there were 715,433 people receiving benefits in New Jersey. Currently, there are upwards of 75,000 people currently unemployed and without benifits 

Zach Herman, a research analyst in the Employment, Labor & Retirement Program at the National Conference of State Legislatures, said states tried many different kinds of approaches to expand the capacity of their unemployment systems post pandemic. North Carolina and others created application tracking systems for the applicants.

“They can see where their application is in the process and then also if there’s an issue with their application, they can go into it and see what it is,” Herman said to New Jersey 101.5 radio “So if they typed their Social Security number wrong, they can go in and fix that Social Security number.”

Phil Murphy, as well as the Department of Labor, have been trying to work with Congress to pass expanded unemployment benefits so there is “no lapse in benefits for claimants who are depending on this temporary income replacement“. This statement was on March 3rd, since then progress has been made, but slowly as many thousands still remain without benifits.

The Stories of the Struggling

 “It’s been hell dealing with this,” said Birgathi. “When I stay in the call center for hours at a time before anyone picks up if someone does at all. What I did was many times went out to run errands while still saying in the line in hopes that someone would answer eventually. And don’t even get me started on the website, I know my internet is not the best, but the number of glitches and even some crashes was something completely uncommon for me.

When asked how he’s been getting on without his unemployment benefits, Birgati said “it’s not been easy luckily, my wife and I had saved up money over the years. Money had to be taken from places like retirement and vacation accounts, and luckily we also had the goodwill of close friends and family who have been lucky enough to be spared all of this”.

Nicole Montoya, 29, has been waiting for 93 days. She was laid off from her job as a captain for the NY Waterway ferry service out of Weehawkin.

Montoya filed for unemployment benefits on February 1st. She said she received a “fact-finding” email on February 3rd, which she completed and returned the same day.

“So I waited, checking the stays of my claim every other day, and every time I would check it said `pending,‘” she said. “Meanwhile, I had coworkers telling me they had submitted after me and were already receiving benefits, so I started to get worried.”

On March 6, Montoya status went from “pending” to “filed,” and on March 11, she received a letter saying she could start weekly certifications.

“The first week I tried to claim, it told me I needed to contact a representative. So I thought it up to my status just changing,” She said. “The next week I tried again, the same answer.”

So she got hardcore with her call attempts, installing an app that would automatically call numbers over and over, “which made like 75 calls an hour which never got picked up.” She emailed the top staff at the Labor Department, “except this time their response was to not email that address and that they could not help me with claim problems, and I would be marked as spam.”

As of May 5th, 93 days after she filed for benefits, she still can’t certify or get through to an agent.

“The New Jersey Department of Labor has let people fall through the cracks,” she said, noting that she has relied on some savings and her partner, who is still working and has covered many bills, but she worries about those without resources. “Essentially, these are people’s lives that they have in their hands and for some, they are failing them miserably and it’s not acceptable.”

(source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Unemployment/comments/gsntlv/new_jersey_12_hours18_emails_1_fax_twitter_and_fb/)

Craig Mroganroth, 32, a restaurant manager in Woodbridge, lost his job after Gov. Phil Murphy ordered the closure of indoor dining at restaurants. Since last year, he’s been relying on unemployment benefits to get by, when he tried to file for a claim again on March 4th, only to receive a “pending” notification.

In the 65 days since his filing status hasn’t changed.

“At this point, I’ve been waiting this long and I haven’t had anybody to explain to me what’s going on, I just feel like the government should’ve taken more initiative to give us some peace of mind,” he said.

While he’s worked for the restaurant for six years, Mroganroth believes some work he did at another store owned by the same company in Pennsylvania could be holding up his claim. But, he noted, all the restaurant managers who did the same cross-state work are receiving benefits.

At first, he figured the backlog might delay his claim for about a month. But after weeks of waiting, he started getting anxious. He’s made dozens of calls to the unemployment offices each day and sends at least five emails to Department of Labor officials a week.

“I know there’s an out-of-state line too, so I set up a dummy phone number to try to talk to someone through there,” he said. “I’m doing anything I can with any number I can try.”

As of now, Mroganroth had to move out of his apartment with the contemplation of moving into his car, he is currently living with his close friend Charlie. Like many going through this, he had to scrounge through his savings just to get by while the unemployment was still being processed. He is said to be going back to work in the coming months while the population is getting vaccinated,

Through the stress, he’s tried to stay positive, but he experienced a lot of stressful days that could’ve been made easier with some communication from state officials, he said.

“I’m still optimistic, but as of now, I figure by the time I get the money from unemployment that’s owed to me, I’m going to be back to work full time,” he added.

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