Nevada gig workers tired of waiting for unemployment benefits

It’s been months of waiting.

And for thousands of independent contractors and self-employed workers, as well as those who had exhausted their unemployment benefits right before the economy tanked, there’s no other option than to wait some more.

“I have never felt so helpless in all my life,” said Carlton Collins, 76.

The Las Vegan is worried about the stress of unpaid claims exacerbating his high blood pressure.

And he fears he won’t receive payment while he’s alive to use it.

Meanwhile, the bills are piling up.

Collins was out of his Lyft job on March 14 and initially filed for traditional unemployment benefits. He would learn weeks later that he didn’t qualify for traditional benefits and was instead eligible for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the benefits program for contracted workers like him.

The federal CARES Act enacted March 27 created the opportunity for independent workers to file for unemployment pay for the first time under PUA. Nevada’s self-employed and contracted workers could begin filing for the assistance May 16, six days after the state introduced a federal provision that granted workers 13 extra weeks of unemployment benefits if they maxed out their benefits on or after July 1, 2019.

While about 74 percent of the 106,667 eligible PUA claimants had been paid through June 19, up from 58 percent the previous week, Collins is among the nearly 28,000 Nevadans as of June 19 who hadn’t yet been paid, according to Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation data.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday 29,441 initial PUA claims in Nevada for the week ending June 20, an increase of 4,721 from the previous week.

‘Holding pattern’

Collins hasn’t been able to file more than one PUA claim since the program opened, he said. Collins said the system keeps rebuffing him and asking him to try again in two weeks. Two weeks pass, and nothing changes.

“I was brought up to work for a living. I served during the military. I’ve given (the government) everything they’ve asked for, but it’s like I’m at the airport in a holding pattern. I’m being treated like a number instead of a human being,” he said.

The one claim he’s filed is listed with both unresolved issues and no outstanding issues. Scores of phone calls to the call center have been frustrating, too, Collins said. The call center is unable to address his claim outside of some basic questions, he said.

He questioned whether priority was given to the earlier claims and why others who applied after him received their benefits.

In her last Friday news conference as DETR’s director before resigning from the position, Heather Korbulic said the department was working to whittle down claims with pending issues “as quickly as we possibly can.”

“We address every claim in the order in which it was received,” Korbulic said. She added that some claims have more issues or are more complicated than others.

Joe Junio, 32, was out of work March 6, and a DETR representative told her early on she might not be eligible for traditional unemployment benefits. She had a W2 form for her taxi driver job, but she didn’t meet other work requirements, said Junio, of North Las Vegas. She tried applying for PUA but struggled to log in to her account on EmployNV.

Her repeated phone calls yielded few results, and she still couldn’t access her account, Junio said. No account, no PUA claims to file.

It was a “very frustrating” process of repeated calls to DETR and, on the rare occasion she got through, getting few answers to her situation, Junio said.

“Every time, it’s just ‘doot, doot doot,’ ” Junio said.

It was her first time applying for benefits, and she was getting by on her savings and the CARES Act stimulus check, she said.

Until Thursday, when she woke up to a letter in the mail from DETR informing her she was, in fact, eligible for traditional unemployment benefits. She activated her unemployment debit card and received her long-awaited funding.

“I am suprise(d)” she wrote in a Thursday morning text.

PEUC

Another pandemic benefits program has been a lifeline for 75-year-old Las Vegas resident Dannie Spencer.

Spencer said she’s “very, very thankful” for her additional 13 weeks of unemployment pay following a layoff in August. Her unemployment benefits ended in January, but she applied for and received additional benefits under the federally funded Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program. The labor department reported 7,195 PEUC claims in Nevada for the week ending June 6, up 514 from the previous week.

But she’s also angry and concerned, wondering what happens when those 13 weeks are up. She’s 75 years old and is trying to avoid public spaces to protect herself from COVID-19, Spencer said.

“What about us? Are we just supposed to eat the cake?” she said.

Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.