Pennsylvania is still dealing with a backlog of unemployment claims, and the Department of Labor & Industry is concerned another logjam could be looming.
WGAL continues to hear from viewers who are still waiting for unemployment benefits and finding it a challenge to make contact with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.“I haven t received one benefit for the past four weeks,” Rachael McLaughlin said.McLaughlin said that when she was able to return to work after recovering from COVID-19, she was told she no longer had a job.She said she applied for unemployment and received a letter asking for additional documents for verification.“It was literally me sitting in my house all day long, hitting the button and then ending it as soon as I got the redial. And I did that over and over and over again from 8 o’clock in the morning to 3:35 in the afternoon,” she said.McLaughlin finally got through weeks later. She said she was told to email or fax additional documents and that she would receive a response after that. I said, Well, how long is that going to take because I m a single mom of three. I literally have not
The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry says it's increasing its staff to handle the thousands of emails and phone calls it receives each day about unemployment claims.
Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry Acting Secretary Jennifer Berrier said Tuesday that problems with the unemployment system have been fixed or will be soon fixed.