This Kentucky man was approved for unemployment in March. He still hasn't been paid.

Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)

May 5--It's been more than a month since Jordan Sanders, a financial analyst from Louisville, was approved to receive unemployment insurance by the state of Kentucky.

He hasn't seen a penny. He also hasn't gotten calls back from the state, has almost never been able to reach anyone on the state's unemployment phone lines, and is running low on hope that he'll ever see his money.

Sanders estimates he's owed about $7,000 by the state's unemployment system, a figure that includes the extra $600 a week issued after the COVID-19 outbreak left a record-number of Kentuckians out of work.

A financial analyst for a tanning salon chain and other businesses that were shut down because of the pandemic, Sanders was laid off March 20. He filed for unemployment the same day, and got approval to receive payments within about a week.

Then, radio silence.

Based on Sanders' description of his claim, it's likely that he's one of about 900 Kentuckians who got approval in March but still have not received their checks.

Gov. Andy Beshear said in a news conference Monday evening that about 22,350 other people who applied in March haven't yet been approved.

Of those, the majority haven't been approved because they incorrectly said on their applications that they were fired or quit, rather than laid off because of the coronavirus, said Josh Benton, the deputy secretary for the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet.

The state will send out emails to those individuals Tuesday evening to correct those problems, Benton said.

For the 900 who have been approved but never received their money, it's more than frustrating, Sanders said.

He knows several people who were approved for unemployment after him and have already received multiple checks.

"I'm surviving, but it's not really an ideal situation when you have ... seven grand owed to you with no end in sight," Sanders said.

His story is emblematic of the problems that have plagued Kentucky's unemployment system since the outset of the coronavirus pandemic.

He is one of many Kentuckians who have tried every conceivable way to contact somebody who can help.

Once, he got a call back from someone at the state's unemployment office, but the worker was "Tier 1," and didn't have the authority to look at his file. He got a call back from a Tier 2 worker, but the call dropped and he never heard back.

He emailed Benton, the deputy secretary for the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet, and called a special phone line that was set up for people who filed in March.

After about two hours on hold, he got through, but the person on the other end just said they hoped to get him paid in the next three to five days.

The workers never asked for his name or for other information about his claim. It's been more than a week since he called that hotline.

"They didn't do anything," Sanders said. "That was just the nail in the coffin, where I was just like, 'This is absurd.'"

JT Henderson, Executive Director of Communications for the Education & Workforce Development Cabinet, said Kentucky currently has 1,000 people taking phone calls for unemployment insurance claims.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the state employed about a dozen people to take those calls.

"Our focus now is increasing quality over quantity," Henderson said. "We are training those taking calls so they can better answer the questions Kentuckians have about their unemployment insurance claims."

Henderson said the claims that remain from March require individual attention, and that the state is working hard to get those claims processed.

Members of the unemployment insurance team may reach out via phone or email if they require additional information, he said.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor, about 591,500 people, more than a quarter of Kentucky's workforce, have filed for unemployment insurance in Kentucky since mid-March. (That figure does not include people who filed their initial claims last week)

The flood of claims has created a logjam of people trying to get answers about their cases.

After well over 100 calls, Sanders said he has nearly lost hope.

"At this point, what's the point? I can't get through to anybody. Nobody's emailing me back, nobody's calling me back," he said. "The future feels bleak."

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