‘You’re powerless.’ Unemployed Kansans still struggling to get their calls answered

James Washington, an Army contractor at Fort Leavenworth, can conduct computer-driven battle simulations. But he hasn’t been able to crack Kansas’ unemployment benefits system.

When the coronavirus pandemic led to cancellation of the spring exercises that earn him thousands, the Basehor resident began trying to file a claim.

He’s called more than 103 times and sent a dozen emails. He’s even mailed a certified letter to Labor Secretary Delia Garcia.

“Although I’m looking at the KSDOL unemployment system from the outside in, my experience is telling me that it is in a state of complete collapse and may be in irrecoverable collapse,” Washington said.

For eight weeks, Kansans trying to file for unemployment benefits have jammed the phone lines of the state’s labor department. Many have been on hold for hours. Others are unable to even make it that far.

As weeks turn into months, frustrations are boiling over among laid-off and furloughed workers who have been unable to cut through what feels like an impenetrable barrier in the quest to obtain financial aid.

Republican lawmakers are holding up the problems as an example of failure by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration. One GOP senator has gone as far as suggesting the state official overseeing the unemployment response should resign.

Kelly has responded by condemning “political cheap shots” and pointing to the progress that’s been made in responding to levels of unemployment unseen since the Great Depression.

But Republicans have seized on the story of Washington and others like him who are out of work and unable to break through the state’s unemployment system.

Michael Hotchkiss, a furloughed Textron Aviation employee who lives in Kingman, said he received two weeks of benefits but was denied four others and can’t reach anyone to find out why. His wife works at a school and won’t be paid over the summer.

“I’m responsible for most of the income for our family and this has me stressed,” Hotchkiss said.

Heath Harrington, a Cheney resident, tried for weeks to get on the phone with someone at the Kansas Department of Labor’s call center. He finally got through on May 11.

“You’re powerless. You have nobody to talk to. Nobody will respond to you,” Harrington said, recalling the experience.

Frustrated, angry and exhausted Kansans took turns sharing unemployment horror stories last week at a Senate Commerce committee hearing. Twenty people also supplied written testimony with similar themes.

The Kansas Department of Labor receives between 150,000 and 250,000 calls a day. At least some fraction of them go unanswered, further frustrating those trying to get benefits while dealing with losing their job.

Their mounting anger is growing into a potent political issue.

Sen. Larry Alley, a Winfield Republican, called the stories “tragic” and said the system has failed.

Sen. Rob Olson, an Olathe Republican, suggested that “maybe we need a new secretary of labor” after noting that Garcia wasn’t attending the hearing despite participating in a press conference the day before.

“I know those are strong words, but she needs to do her job,” Olson said.

Kelly voiced confidence in Garcia after the hearing, saying that she was “beyond disappointed” that lawmakers “chose to take political cheap shots and attack the Secretary of Labor and her staff” instead of solutions.

Some progress with system

Kelly and Garcia have repeatedly acknowledged difficulties in responding to the surge of unemployment claims. They have faulted both a decades-old computer system and the unprecedented, overwhelming nature of the crisis.

The Department of Labor is also highlighting progress. On Friday, the agency said its bank payout limit had been lifted, allowing it to process nearly $100 million in Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation overnight. The FPUC is the additional $600 in weekly aid approved by Congress.

The agency said the processed amount represented the “vast majority” of back payments that were outstanding and that the money should deposit into bank accounts on Monday or Tuesday. Only about 2,000 claims are still awaiting back payments, the agency said.

Although numerous Kansans are frustrated, the state Department of Labor has successfully processed a staggering number of claims. Since unemployment began to shoot up, the agency has sorted through more than 236,412 initial claims – a figure that represents roughly 8 percent of the state’s population. About $320 million in benefits has been paid out so far.

By comparison, in the week before unemployment began surging, Kansas recorded just 1,820 initial claims.

KDOL has grown the ranks of call takers to more than 100, including hiring back former employees. But in a lengthy letter to the committee, Garcia explained that there is no easy way to quickly increase the number of customer service representatives, or CSRs.

Training a CSR typically takes four weeks of classes and the job is challenging. Unemployment law is complicated in normal times, Garcia wrote, but multiple changes to the law have already been made during the pandemic. And CSRs must navigate between two separate screens during a call.

“Even if KDOL hired 100 private call center workers to assist, those workers would still have to receive detailed training on the unemployment insurance and the technology systems that support the program,” Garcia wrote. “Again, those workers would have to be supported by a number of experienced supervisors and trainers that do not exist.”

For some residents, though, the problem isn’t long call waiting times; it’s been the inability to get in line at all.

Izabella Borowiak-Miller, a 22-year-old University of Kansas student who works at a law firm, was unable to work from the end of March until the beginning of May after attorneys began working from home. She tried calling four different numbers she found for the Department of Labor.

“Each one said ‘all agents are busy. Call back in an hour’ and then it would hang up,” Borowiak-Miller said in written testimony to the committee.

When a reporter asked Garcia about the phenomenon last week, she acknowledged hearing reports about it happening, but had little advice.

“The best I can say right now is continue calling,” Garcia said, adding that the agency is working to expand the capacity of its phone system.

Old technology slows process

Kansas’ unemployment technology remains creaky. Garcia said agency staff have had to quickly implement several changes to the mainframe system, which dates back to the 1970s. Previously, workers had to wait a week before becoming eligible for benefits. The requirement has been waived, and KDOL employees have had to code the removal of the requirement, add an extension of benefits and an additional $600 per week of federal aid for recipients into the system.

In addition, the agency has created a new system to provide benefits to the self-employed and others who don’t usually qualify. The process requires “painstaking” code review and testing, Garcia said.

KDOL uses an internet web environment and a case management system that hasn’t been upgraded and maintained over time, Garcia said. That makes the system “extremely vulnerable” to the massive amount of data coming into it.

“As a result, our team must expend considerable resources trying to keep the system from crashing,” Garcia said.

Sen. Tom Holland, a Baldwin City Democrat, said legislators need to face the fact the unemployment technology is decades old.

“The Model A isn’t going to handle it. We need a Lamborghini,” Holland said. “And the problem is we can’t implement the Lamborghini now, so we’ve got to use bailing wire, we’ve got to use duct tape and we’ve got to get through this crisis as best as we can.”

This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "‘You’re powerless.’ Unemployed Kansans still struggling to get their calls answered."