RALEIGH – Waiting on hold for hours is, unfortunately, the status quo when it comes to resolving issues with the N.C. Division of Employment Security. Through out last year plus of Pandemic Panic, and the wake of man-made economic pain closures and lockdowns generated, the inefficiencies of the state unemployment office became very apparent.
Now WBTV reports that it’s not just unemployed North Carolinians having a hard time getting a call back from the office; top state lawmakers are having trouble too.
From WBTV:
“[…] That’s when a former colleague suggested she call the office of N.C. House Rules Chairman Destin Hall (R-Caldwell), one of the most powerful lawmakers in the state house.
Hall’s office tried to ask DES about Holdaway’s case. But couldn’t get an answer. It was the latest, Hall said, in a string of attempts to resolve problems for constituents that got a delayed response or no response at all from the unemployment office.
“We’ve taken their claims and we’ve tried to reach out to DES on the behalf and we’re not receiving responses,” Hall said.
So Hall joined hundreds of other people that have called WBTV over the past year in hopes of finally being able to get through to the staff at DES.
“Now we’re a year into this and we’re still talking to citizens across our state who are waiting months to get these claims,” Hall said. “It’s simply unacceptable.” […]”
Hall didn’t even get a call back until the investigative reporters mentioned they were about to go live with the above investigative reporting. The report focuses on a woman who was granted unemployment for months, only for DES to turn around months later and ask for that money back because it was a mistake. Seriously.
Naturally, the citizen had already spent the money at the grocery store, according to the story, having been unable to work either of her two jobs due to the Panic and closures.
This is the festering, inefficient, unaccountable bureaucracy that serves as a shining (or dingy?) example of what is wrong with government.
Read the rest of the report, and how Rep. Hall finally got through to DES, here.
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