For many, the wait for unemployment benefits drags on as the system deals with a deluge

Massachusetts, like other states, has been hit with a deluge of unemployment claims — almost 575,000 since mid-March, including more than 100,000 just this past week, compared to 25,000 claims in the four weeks before the virus struck.

News Story (Massachusetts, NATIONAL)

Sean P. Murphy
Boston Globe
April 16, 2020
READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Tags: COVID-19, Unemployment, Unemployment Insurance

Organizations mentioned/involved: Philadelphia Legal Assistance

---

DETAILS

Massachusetts has plenty of company. Especially hard-hit are big states, like New York and California, where applicants for unemployment insurance complain of long waits. Julia Simon-Mishel, a supervising attorney in the unemployment compensation unit at Philadelphia Legal Assistance, pointed out many states had cut their unemployment insurance staffs to bare bones during times of low unemployment before the pandemic.

“States are doing the best they can, but it’s a nearly impossible situation,” she said.