Courtesy photo
Amber Stephenson is having hard time collecting unemployment benefits in Nevada.
Tuesday, June 2, 2020 | 5:47 p.m.
When Nevada last month rolled out its Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program for self-employed workers, Lyft driver Adam Kowalskii thought his financial strain caused by the business shutdown would be alleviated.
More than three weeks later, he’s still waiting for a check.
After he filed, he received a notice that his claim was being investigated, which has held up his payments. His repeated attempts to contact the unemployment office to rectify the problem have gone unanswered, he said.
“It’s like they made a meal, and they put it in a box, and you can’t open the box to eat it,” said Kowalskii, who is the administrator of a Facebook group for self-employed workers struggling to get unemployment benefits.
The state said that payments through the pandemic assistance program were expected to begin May 23, and could be backdated to Feb. 27, if applicable. Kowalskii said he had enough savings to not face eviction or run out of food, but there were other workers out there who are traditionally not covered through unemployment benefits, and they need help.
They haven’t seen a check in 13 weeks.
“I know that there’s people who are hurting, and they have no answers and there’s no one they can go to for answers,” he said.
Heather Korbulic, director of the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, said last week that the assistance program received 79,589 initial claims and paid out $36 million in benefits. She didn’t say how many gig workers that covered.
Officials said benefits range from $181 to $469 a week, plus additional weekly payments of $600 provided through the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program.
“When you overpromise and underdeliver, people are like, ‘Well, are you just lying to shut us up?,’ ” Kowalskii said.
Applicants self-certify their claims by uploading verifying documents such as W-2 or 1099 tax forms, pay stubs, bank receipts, ledgers, invoices and billing statements. If there’s an error, such as when applicant Amber Stephenson realized her claim was backdated two weeks earlier than she had initially self-certified, it will produce delays.
And those delays aren’t easily fixed. With unemployment rates at 28.2%, the highest in the nation, there are many residents contacting the jobless office.
That’s why the state this week launched a call center to help potential claimants through the process. But that is also flawed, according to 2,800 comments on the Facebook group. One common complaint: The call, after a few hours of waiting, simply dies.
“I can wait, I’m in a different situation than some people,” Stephenson said. “I’m lucky that I have a significant other that’s still working, and we have an income coming in, you know what I mean? I know a lot of people don’t have that option.”
