Laid-off SLO County mom spent 3 months seeking unemployment pay. How she finally got help
After months of struggling to obtain state unemployment pay, Nipomo resident Gabrielle Saunders cashed a much-needed check in late July.
The single mother was falling severely behind in rent and bill payments when she shared her story with The Tribune in mid-July.
Saunders was eligible for the state Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program after being laid off from her administrative assistant job with a small medical supply company in San Luis Obispo County on April 11. But after countless unsuccessful attempts to get help from the state Employment Development Department (EDD), she still hadn’t received any funding.
Saunders spent hours on the phone, calling as many as 100 times in a day, she said.
But after reaching the EDD office, Saunders received nearly three months of unemployment insurance backpay in late July.
“I’m the sole provider for my two sons, and I was down to the tail end of my finances,” Saunders said. “I was losing sleep and just trying to figure out what I was going to do. ... I’m so grateful to the people who reached out to offer help. I’m truly in awe of the community support.”
Tip helps SLO County mom reach state unemployment staff
Saunders said a community member who read the Tribune’s story about her predicament advised her to fax her correspondence to the state’s EDD office as the best way to reach a staff member.
Saunders wrote a two-page letter by hand and faxed it from a local copy store at $1 per page to the California agency, she said, getting a callback response that resulted in the processing of her insurance claim.
Saunders received back pay of $167 per week in pandemic unemployment assistance, plus $600 in federal assistance for each week she was unemployed due to COVID-19.
The $600 per week from the federal CARES Act funding expired at the end of July, though another round of stimulus assistance is under consideration in Congress.
Now that her pandemic compensation has run out, Saunders is using the EDD fax number to file a follow-up application for regular unemployment pay. She’s sharing that number with friends and others in need who have contacted her.
“I received a lump sum payment on July 23 and I’ve been able to catch up on the bills that need to be paid,” Saunders said. “I’ve been able to pay back my parents and pay my car note back.”
Saunders said it took up a lot of time and stress she knows others are facing as well.
“It’s not fair to deal with these circumstances beyond our control,” she said. “I know my story is not the only one out there.”
When she did manage to connect with an EDD employee by phone, once with the help of California state Sen. Bill Monning’s political aide, the EDD representative couldn’t find her record, she said.
Monning said he’s heard from hundreds seeking help with the EDD. An aide for state Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham, Nick Merman, said in July that the assemblyman was contacted by 2,500 Central Coast residents, looking for similar assistance.
EDD faces reduced staffing levels, high demand
The EDD responded with a statement, saying the agency’s staff cares “deeply about serving those impacted by this unprecedented pandemic, which hit at a time when the state was seeing record low unemployment with correspondingly low federal administrative funding and therefore reduced staffing levels.”
“We continue to work around the clock, seven days a week to expand our capacity for processing this unprecedented demand for unemployment benefits as quickly as possible,” the agency wrote.
The EDD has processed 9.3 million claims during the pandemic, including regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) program, and separate Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.
That includes about 7.1 million for regular regular state-provided UI benefits over the last five months — about double the number of regular UI claims the EDD processed during the highest year of the Great Recession (3.8 million in 2010), the agency wrote.
The EDD is in the midst of a mass hiring effort to add 5,300 staff, while enhancing technology systems and developing communication methods to help claimants, agency officials said.
“The department continues to evolve daily to fully meet this moment and ensure claimants are paid all of the benefits they are eligible to receive,” EDD officials said.
Nipomo woman gets donations, job offers
Saunders said she’s thankful to have received personal donations from some community members who reached out to her directly, totaling about $2,500.
Saunders said that Angelo Morabito, the owner of Paul’s Dry Cleaners & Laundry in San Luis Obispo, reached out to her with a job offer and a donation of an undisclosed amount.
“I’m a businessman myself and I have a lot of employees, and some are in the same shape as her, one of whom has worked for 30 years and can’t get insurance,” Morabito said. “I know how it is.”
Saunders has received job tip leads from some others in the community as well.
“Words can’t even express how thankful I am,” Saunders said. “It has been awesome. I hope to get back to work soon.”
SLO City Church will be sharing the single mom’s story during an upcoming service to help provide financial assistance as a charitable gesture.
“We were touched by her struggles as a single and jobless mother,” said Jake McEwen, a member of the San Luis Obispo church who reached out to Saunders about helping her. “We want to help and be a church for the community.”
Saunders said that she’s submitting her resume to employers who have reached out. She said she’s previously applied for numerous jobs and hopes to get back to work in a local economy strained by coronavirus impacts.
She said her faith in God and the support of her two teenage sons helped her emotionally get through the toughest times.
“They tried to hold their mama up,” Saunders said of her sons. “They believe in God. They’re both athletes, basketball players, and even though they say we’re struggling right now, when they get older they say they’ll take care of me. They tell me now’s just a difficult time.”
How to get unemployment claim info
Although she’s received financial help from the EDD and the community, Saunders said she’s not out of the woods yet.
She had to repay an overpayment in EDD compensation she received from a previous claim in 2019 while she was out of work for a few months. That complicated her current case.
But she believes she’s now eligible for the standard, non-pandemic assistance.
“I’m now applying for regular unemployment of $450 per week because I’ll need that to get by,” Saunders said. “After paying off all I owed, my savings are dwindling again.”
As part of its public resources, the agency wrote it has sent more than 7 million texts alerting claimants to developments. EDD offers information through its website and Facebook page — addressing many common questions.
A self-service line is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week in English or Spanish at 1-866-333-4606 with claim information, including last payment, certifying benefits, and other details.
EDD also launched a new technical assistance call center in English and Spanish to assist with more general call inquiries and requests for assistance — freeing up staff to answer more claim specific questions, the agency said.
This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 3:03 PM.
%20Cropped.jpg)