PROPHETSTOWN, Ill. — The Federal Government is set to pass a COVID-19 relief bill that will include $600 checks for most Americans. In addition to that there will be increased unemployment benefits. For some people the relief is coming just a little too late.
“Welcome to the Illinois Department of Employment Security.”
It's this automated message that Jay Johnson has been hearing since October. Johnson gets laid off every winter from his seasonal roofing job. Normally he fills it with other jobs like kitchen work or dry wall work. This year because of the pandemic however, he can’t find work anywhere.
He says it’s affecting his entire life. “I don’t have a life. I can’t do anything, can’t pay bills, luckily I have friends.”
Johnson says he never has to file for unemployment come winter, but it’s different this year.
“You have to sit here every day, call every day. It’s like it’s getting to the point where you want to give up but no you can’t give up.”
He filed for Illinois unemployment benefits back in October and received his first check. He says from there it's been an uphill battle. “I've been fighting with them ever since.”
If you dial into the 800 number for the unemployment office this is what you hear, “We have implemented the call back only model as a temporary solution to honor the order in which callers attempt to reach the call center for assistance. What this means to you is that rather than wait on hold or call multiple times, you will receive a call when you are next in line without losing your place.”
Johnson has been placed on that list that has the center call him back once it's his turn, but it hasn't been for two and a half months. Right now with the holiday quick approaching he doesn’t have any income coming in.
He says he hasn’t been able to talk to a real person in 3 weeks. It’s his biggest problem. Last week he was supposed to finally receive that call.
“I was supposed to call last Thursday to get certified again, but it won’t go through.”
He instead gets just a recording. A federal stimulus check may soon be in the mail, but it comes many months too late for people like Johnson who have been without income all this time.
Johnson says he plans on filing for the federal relief aid. He says he should have received four unemployment checks by now and he's still waiting for a call back from the Unemployment Office. It’s a waiting game he and many others hope will soon come to an end.