Unemployment Claim Hotline Jammed
Posted Friday, January 23, 2009 --- 12:35 p.m.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Historic unemployment levels have frustrated those trying to file for benefits in Wisconsin and overwhelmed state employees trying to deal with claims.
The state Department of Workforce Development has added and reassigned staff and extended hours at its call centers in Madison and Milwaukee to try to keep up with demand for help.
Last week alone, the state says the two centers received more than 254,000 calls. Last year during the same week, about 56,000 calls were received.
Tiffany Johnson of Green Bay says she recently tried to get through to a state call center, but couldn't after waiting for more than an hour. Johnson is one of many expressing frustration.
Department spokesman Richard Jones says about half of 83 federally-funded temporary positions added to deal with the overload have been filled. Jones says they're working to hire the rest. A total of 132 employees are working in the state's two call centers.
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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by Dustin Location: Dalton, WI on Jan 28, 2009 at 12:10 PMyes, getting a hold of unemployment has been a huge hassle for me. i have been laid off since the middle of December, and have been trying to call unemployment literally for hours at a time, with no luck. after a month of this, i still have not been able to get through. every time i call i either get a busy signal or go through the menu and get told that all specialists are busy and to call back later. i have only got a wait time once, and after an hour of waiting, i got hung up on. i cant afford any of my bills anymore. i am about to loose my only source of transportation because i am unable to make the payments, and i even lost my insurance on it.[ Report Abuse ]
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by Anon on Jan 24, 2009 at 09:10 AMYour complaints are very much understood. The reason the call centers are so understaffed is the state does not have the money to pay new call center staff. There is currently a hiring freeze for all state departments, so existing state staff are doing the work of 2-3 people. Also, it seems that whenever the state hires any new staff, people always complain how their tax dollars are being wasted. The state can't win.[ Report Abuse ]
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by June Location: Johnson Creek, WI on Jan 24, 2009 at 07:09 AMI tried to get throught for over 2 days to get my claim extended. The lines were busy and then when I got through they said you have to speak with a specialist and then the recording goes on and it says they are all busy and try back later. Very frustrating.[ Report Abuse ]
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by anon on Jan 23, 2009 at 09:06 PMit'll only continue to get worse...the layoffs will continue until morale improves.[ Report Abuse ]
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by Brenda on Jan 23, 2009 at 08:29 PMI understand the frustration, even when your not tyring to draw unemployment, it's nearly impossible to reach a body. They just do not hire enough people. I tested for this job on 4 occasions (never ever hearing anything back), and apparently the department is not interested in expanding the staff to deal with what is hard to get though when calls are much slower. Unsure how they figure even 500 people could deal with more than a quarter of a million calls in one week. Most much better staffed call centers take a fraction of this type of volume. Looks like state funding could be better spent doing what we pay taxes for and this is helping the people that fund them![ Report Abuse ]
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