Out of work -- and cash -- millions of Americans are still waiting for their first unemployment check
Holly Strout is a 47-year-old event planner in Volusia County, Fla., not far from Orlando, where she was born and raised. There’s just one problem: The state where she has lived her entire life didn’t seem to know that.
For days, Strout had been trying to file for unemployment benefits, joining millions of Americans unexpectedly out of a job because of the deadly coronavirus. Try as she might, though, Florida’s beleaguered system would not verify her identity. So she emailed. She faxed. She made “116 calls a day,” she said. It wasn’t until early April, nearly three weeks after applying, that she learned the verdict.
“I was told I was ineligible,” Strout said. “They told me to reapply.”
Out of work, out of cash and running out of patience, Strout is among more than 26 million workers nationwide seeking unemployment benefits, many of whom are still waiting for approval. The economic carnage wrought by the coronavirus has resulted in a national backlog of at least 3 million unpaid jobless claims, according to a new analysis by The Washington Post, threatening Americans around the country with even more financial hardship than they anticipated.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/out-of-work-%e2%80%94-and-cash-%e2%80%94-millions-of-americans-are-still-waiting-for-their-first-unemployment-check/ar-BB136CXB?li=BBnb7Kz
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