Hundreds of desperate Kentuckians line up for unemployment help after Capitol protest
A protest in Frankfort Tuesday by people frustrated with delays in getting unemployment benefits turned into an opportunity to get some help for hundreds of people.
The state unemployment office set up tables and computers in a building behind the Capitol and had employees talk with people who had come for the protest. A line formed as people tried to resolve their complaints.
About 10 workers from the unemployment office helped people with claims, according to Marjorie Arnold, chief of staff for the Kentucky Labor Cabinet.
“We wanted to help those who visited the Capitol today and reports indicate that many received assistance with their claim,” Arnold said in an email.
Brian Lester, 46, of Lexington said he went to the center after state Rep. Susan Westrom, D-Lexington, called Tuesday morning to let him know about the potential to get some help.
He got in line at 4:15. About an hour later, his claim, filed April 5, had been processed and he was on his way to getting back pay.
Lester, who got evicted from his apartment after he lost his job, raised his arms in victory as he left.
“People really do care, it’s just that they’re overwhelmed,” Lester said of the unemployment staffers.
Not everyone left satisfied, though.
Keke McKenzie, 20, whose unemployment claim from April 30 remains unresolved, said she drove from Lexington, but didn’t get to talk to anyone from the unemployment office.
State staffers said they had to stop accepting people in line at 4:30 p.m. because they couldn’t process claims into the night.
“I thought I was actually going to be able to talk to a human today, but I guess I’m not,” said McKenzie, a student at Eastern Kentucky University.
People who didn’t get to talk to an unemployment staffer were directed to a line where they could leave contact information for the potential to get a call back.
The pop-up center will be open again at 9 a.m. Wednesday for people to get help with their claims.
Angela Hazlett and her fiancé, Jessie Krzyzewski, plan to get in line Wednesday. The two drove from Benton, in Western Kentucky, to get help. They tried to apply for unemployment on March 30, but couldn’t get through until April 10 because the system kept crashing.
Hazlett said she campaigned for Gov. Andy Beshear, but hasn’t been impressed with the unemployment system.
“The way this system is . . . this is nuts,” she said.
Hazlett said she’s so strapped that she would have to call her aunt to get her to pay for a hotel room to stay over Tuesday night in Frankfort.
Business shutdowns aimed at limiting the spread of the novel coronavirus sent unemployment soaring across the U.S. beginning in March, but Kentucky has had a greater share of its workforce affected than many states.
There have been more than 850,000 initial claims for jobless benefits in the state since early March, equal to more than 40 percent of the workforce.
No state, Kentucky included, was prepared for the onslaught of claims.
The state has struggled to process some claims, putting people on hold on the telephone for hours at times only to cut them off and leaving thousands of claims unresolved.
There are 7,500 outstanding claims from March, 27,000 from April and 17,000 from May, state officials said Tuesday.
“Uncle Andy needs to figure this out,” said Lynn Fields, 55, of Glasgow, who has been waiting on her unemployment money since April 10. “Because he’s pretty much just turned his back on us.”
Fields was one of the last people who was able to talk with an unemployment staffer Tuesday evening.
Arnold said the state has processed more than 90 percent of the unprecedented number of claims, and the state has added employees to the unemployment office to meet demand.
Beshear also ordered a reorganization of the unemployment office to try to improve service.
“No one in state government will be satisfied until every Kentuckian receives all the benefits for which they qualify,” JT Henderson, spokesman for the state Education and Workforce Development Cabinet, said in a statement.
