Michiganders Still Waiting for Unemployment Relief

We reported on this a few weeks ago, when the Michigan Unemployment Agency and law makers promised a fix to the overloaded agency. They promised people were going to get their unemployment checks. Michigan has been shut down for over two months due to a shelter in place order aimed at flattening the curve, that has sky rocketed unemployment claims in the state. Tens of thousands of Michigan workers have dealt with long waits and often no response from filing for their unemployment.

Their claims have caused an overload of the online and phone system the state has setup to handle them. Many folks have gone online to file only to find overloaded servers, phone systems failing, and when they do get through, it could be weeks before they actually get a response. If you don't have a job, you don't have an income, and it's a very scary position to be in. Many of the filers have families to support. Now Michigan law makers are getting fed up with the continuing complaints on the lack of response from the Michigan Unemployment agency.

The Detroit News reports:

With problems persisting, 20 lawmakers — 19 Republicans and one Democrat — sent a letter to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday requesting the "removal and replacement of the UIA leadership team. Our state has been shut down for two months and we are still receiving calls from people pleading to get their assistance from the state," the letter said. "It is clear to us, the leadership in the Unemployment Insurance Agency is not doing the job they were put there for and it is time for us to move in another direction."

The current director of The Unemployment Insurance Agency in Whitmer’s administration is Steve Gray.