| 11/17/2008 |
Tassoni wants unemployment office beefed up to handle heavy claim load
STATE HOUSE – How do you buy food and pay the bills after you’ve lost your job and while you’re waiting for the first unemployment check to arrive?
“That is a horribly uncomfortable position to be in, but especially more so when it takes the state a month or more to process and act on an unemployment filing,” said Sen. John J. Tassoni Jr. (D-Dist. 22, Smithfield, North Smithfield).
“Every government official in Rhode Island is aware of our state’s high rate of unemployment, which means a significant increase, in recent months, in the number of unemployment claims being filed,” said Senator Tassoni. “And yet the unemployment office is still trying to handle the increased numbers with the same small staff it has always had. That means unemployed Rhode Islanders are being forced to wait longer and longer to receive unemployment benefits they were paying for while they were working.”
Senator Tassoni referred to one of his constituents as an example. This individual, he said, lost his job in October and filed for unemployment the last week of the month. He was given an appointment for a phone interview the last week of November – four weeks later. Should there be any problem with the claim that might lead to an appeal, that could take another six to eight weeks.
Moreover, said Senator Tassoni, it is taking people weeks to get in touch with the unemployment office because the phone lines are constantly busy.
“How is someone who is unemployed going to get by if they have to go a month or three without an unemployment check?” Senator Tassoni asked. “A person could starve waiting that long for benefits he or she has earned.”
Senator Tassoni said he faults the governor and his staff for not being more proactive in this regard. “We all know how bad the state’s economy is and how high our unemployment rate has gotten, and we anticipate it will get worse. The governor and his staff should be reacting to this by – at least temporarily – finding a way to get more workers into the unemployment office to handle the large number of claims that are being filed.”
“Government is supposed to be efficient and serve the citizens,” he said. “Making people wait and wait and wait is hardly being efficient and hardly providing much service to people in need. If the answer is moving more people into the unemployment office to process claims and help out-of-work Rhode Islanders get a check quicker, then the governor should do that, now.”
For more information, contact:
Randall T. Szyba, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-2457 |
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