Many West Tennesseans still awaiting unemployment benefits

JACKSON, Tenn. — Many of you have reached out to us about issues with your unemployment benefits.

According to the Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development, overall unemployment has decreased year to year from 7.9% to 4.4%, but many people are still waiting to receive these benefits.

“It is not as if unemployment has gone away and it’s not an issue, we’re still receiving double the number of claims each week that we did prior to the pandemic, so while we are still working claims as quickly as we possibly can, those claims are still coming in faster than they were before,” said Chris Cannon, Assistant Administrator of the Communications Division for the Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development.

Some claimants we spoke to say they haven’t been able to reach anyone to help them.

“I’ve been put on hold for over an hour and a half and I’ve had to hang up, and then I got to go back and then put back into hold and I still don’t get a hold of anybody,” said Kimberly Newsom, unemployment claimant.

However, Cannon says unemployment agents are on standby and ready to help.

“Several times during the week I do just a random test and call and I can get through, so if you don’t get through on the first try, try again, but the call volume has gone down so much we’ve had to reduce our call center hours because people weren’t calling,” said Cannon.

Newsom says she has sent paperwork needed to process her claim but didn’t have any luck.

“They request documents and I go ahead and send those in, I’ll email them, nobody gets back to you and I think it’s a big problem because those of us who really can’t find employment, we deserve those unemployment benefits,” said Newsom.

Cannon says they will contact applicants if there is an issue.

“Check your messages, check your email to make sure we’re not trying to contact you for a document that was not part of the application that we need. We understand that the waiting process is difficult, we understand that. We’re working as quickly as we possibly can to get through the number of claims that we have right now,” said Cannon.

Newsom says there should be a better system to help with unemployment.

“Something needs to change, how many times have us claimants called the unemployment agency and all we hear is tomorrow, ‘7 days, 6 weeks,’ no, something needs to be done today,” said Newsom.

We’ve received several emails from our viewers claiming they have not received any benefits for over a year and their case is still pending.

Other viewers say their cases have been sent to a judicator, but they have not received any other updates.

Some say their application was simply denied with no explanation and they are still waiting on an appeal.

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