“On any given day, my office receives several pleas for help through email, phone calls and Facebook messenger, as time goes on it has only gotten worse – not better. It is unconscionable and unacceptable that New Yorkers from around the state have been waiting for six, seven, eight weeks for their unemployment benefit applications to be completed, leaving them without any income. It is heartbreaking to hear their stories and desperation, especially because there is little we can do as legislators aside from passing their information on to an efficient, but already inundated point of contact.

“While the initial increase of representatives on the phones from 1,000 to 3,000 was a good-faith effort that seemed like it would help expedite the complexities of this process, it has definitely proven not to be enough. Individuals who have been waiting for months are being told to wait two weeks longer, but two weeks is an eternity for individuals who need money to feed their families and keep the lights on. We need more representatives on the phones. We need to prioritize cases and implement a better system that keeps track of cases and alerts individuals, so they are no longer in the dark.”