RICHMOND, Va. — With the U.S. economy humming along, and with unemployment near record lows, the pandemic may seem long ago.
But it’s not exactly in the rear-view mirror for the Virginia Employment Commission.
In fact, many unemployment benefit claimants are as frustrated as ever with the poor performance of the VEC.
“When you try to call the phone number every time, day, night, opening, closing, you get the same message: that they have too many calls and that they can’t accept your call right now,” said Scott Marshall. “And it just hangs up on you.”
WTVR Marshall had a tough year last year: in March, the network technician was hurt on the job, spent the year out on worker’s compensation, and then, despite being cleared to go back to work, was laid off in December.
Unfortunately, applying for benefits through the VEC didn’t make things any easier.
“You get these emails that say, ‘There’s a new thing for you to fill out,'” Marshall said. “But you go on there and there’s no notification that says, ‘Go here. This needs attention.’ You have to go and dig through and actually find what they’re talking about.”