Georgia Department Of Labor
reviews and complaints

Good afternoon,

I am contacting your office on behalf of the Georgia citizens that are suffering while waiting on PUA Unemployment payments. I am a forty year old woman and the mother of three children. My husband and I are upstanding members of society, that are disappointed to say the least in how the Georgia Department of Labor is handling my Unemployment Claim.
Our family falls in the middle class income range, and with three children both my husband and I have to earn incomes in order to sustain the typical middle American household. This has not been possible since the middle of March 2020, due to Covid-19.
In March my children who are now 10, 11, and 13 had to begin distance learning when their school closed. I then had to become the stay at home mom and their teacher full-time. My husband and I were not concerned initially, due to the PUA and Unemployment that was being offered to American's to cope with these exact types of income changes that the pandemic was causing.
I filed my Unemployment Claim in the beginning of April, which was a first for me. There had been previous times in my life when I could of chosen to file a claim, however we have prided ourselves on taking care of our family without government assistance. Since April, I have received one email confirming they had my claim and a letter in August stating that I was eligible to receive $365.00 weekly starting 3/15/20. Today is September 20th, and I have yet to receive any payments.
I have followed all of the directions on the Georgia Department of Labor website and have been requesting my weekly payments since I first filed, as required. At this time I am not sure what the hold up on my payments is. I have called and left daily voicemails on every phone number that I can find that is affiliated with the Department of Labor to include my local Career Center in Augusta and all regional offices. There is also a section on the government website to email the regional and local offices, which I have also done daily. My daily attempts to make contact began in May and to date I have not received a single response from a single person at the Department of Labor.
I watch the news and I am aware that they are behind on processing claims and that is why I waited so long to contact elected officials, such as yourself. I am hoping that you agree that Georgia Citizens should not be waiting six months or more to receive their Unemployment payments. That amount of time is not a delay it is a catastrophic failure on the Department of Labor's part.
My family is truly suffering. My husband and I went to see a lawyer last week to begin Bankruptcy proceedings. We have worked hard over the years and all of that is being erased due to what is currently going on. Tomorrow, if I cannot get our local water utilities company to wait until Friday, when my husband gets paid, to pay our bill we will have no running water. Our power is also under threat of being disconnected. This does not seem fair and definitely is not our "American Dream."
I am requesting that you look into my accusations against the Georgia Department of Labor and take any action within your power to help all of the Georgians that are drowning and suffering irreparable damage due to nonpayment of their claims. Middle class families and below cannot wait months to receive benefits that are theirs. To lose half or all of a families income is devastating and without receiving the help that both Georgia and the Federal government have made available for us, we are all sliding further into a whole that we will not be able to get ourselves out of.
Please implement a time frame that they have to process claims and begin paying those of us with legitimate claims. Also please make them accountable to the people of Georgia that they are serving. It is imperative that they call claimants back and respond to emails. This should be mandatory especially while all of the Career Centers are closed to the public. People have no door to knock on, no one to call that will answer, and are left with a hopeless feeling that it could be another six months before their money arrives. We are helpless. We call, email, and even contact the Commissioner with every hour we spend trying to just have one meaningful contact with a person be in vein.
I am praying that you will help the families that are suffering. We all need some hope in such a bleak and desperate time. Please hear our cries for relief. Please be my one meaningful contact and actually take some action.

Sincerely,

Catherine Price
[protected]@gmail.com
[protected] or [protected]

I have not received my unemployment since july I filed a appeal only to get a dead end the manager stated they had a backlog and had not started processing appeals from july and just wait wait while the bills pile up my light turned off facing eviction this is not fair you call the number hold for hours dead air I have mailed the commissioner nothing is being done

I applied on 06/2/20 I received email on 06/22/20 that my claim was processed but still nothing. I have tried calling/sending emails for 60 days straight and still no response. I noticed that some people who had applied 4 weeks ago has received there money. (?) I see the stats that they put out there on how the unemployment is down and there are hiring more claim agents. Then why we have over 5k people complaining about not getting paid. Looking for answers help.
W.Jones

It's been 16 weeks. I have called, emailed, and even have talk to one of the customer service people who tried to assist me with no a vail. On the ui site it has said it was being processed but have yet to hear anything. I applied on 06/12/20 and did get an email on 07/06/20 that my claim was being process but still nothing. Please someone help me my patients has ran out.
Sincerely yours
Marilyn king

I had filed for ui back on june 26 th 2020.
It has been 40 working days and 8 weeks.
Still no word on determination for ui!
I've tried calling several different phone numbers daily, I have also emailed and tried calling the commissioner who hasn't returned any of my emails or calls.
How are people to survive with no response!
There should be an extreme better process!

Gadol is currently three weeks behind and building on my unemployment compensation. The issue started when the $600 ended, I have gotten nothing since then. I have emailed at least twice a week, the phone at my local office is a recording only and the office is closed. My name is Michael S Jones. What do we do to get some assistance on this. Who is working at the dol? How can we get in touch with someone? What is the hold up?

Hi,

I've have left several messages to my local department of labor (Cobb County, GA) and the case worker without any success. The claim ws approved and I received confirmation that it was process on 7/22 but have yet to receive any unemployment benefits up to date. I go online to "Check My UI Claim Status" and it has that it is still pending for a decision. I need help in getting the funds for the benefits that I qualified for which has yet to happen. I'm not getting any help from the local branch at all. They do not return my messages or respond to any of the emails I've sent them.

I was initially laid off due to Covid 19 on 4/20/20. I was told by my employer (Service Partners/Top Build) that I would be paid part of my salary and maybe brought back to work after 15 days. I also was told that I could file for unemployment at that time or could wait the 15 days. I chose to wait the 15 days. I was contacted after the 15 days ( 5/7/2020) that I would not be brought back full time due to lack of work. On 5/11/2020, I was contacted by the Legal department with Top Build, that I should have unemployment filed by the employer in April- it was not; and when they let me go officially on 5/7/20, they should have filed for unemployment, they did not. I filed for unemployment on my own. I was not able to get my benefits for months. After speaking with a Department of Georgia employee, who was great helped me to the situation straighten out. She was able to address the 15 days that I got my partial pay. I would like to know what is my recourse in this situation.

Debbie Harris
[protected]
170 Green Commons Dr
Covington, GA 3001

I was awarded benefits beginning 4/12/20 through 4/10/21.; UI $55.00 per week, with a max benefit of 1430.00 and 1155.00 still reporting remaining. And Pandemic UI $600.00. I received a check for each from (4 checks) 4-17-20 through 5-17-20 and haven't recieved anything since. And 2 checks on 6-23-20 for 149.00. And nothing since. Please advise.

Sheilah Reese
[protected]
05/19/57
[protected]

Was furloughed in April, 2019. Employer has been applying for my benefits. I was trying to also cause wasn't getting any money coming in. Went on the gadol site and it said didn't qualify for UI but might for PUA. Applied for that and now something On their siren says I qualify for UI for $81 a week. It's July 26, 2019 and still nothing! Went on gadol siteBro put on to withhold taxes while waiting. Put in to have Ga taxes withheld. It now comes up and says, you can't have Ga taxes withheld cause you're not a Ga. resident. Are you kidding me? I most certainly am. Almost 4 months of this nonsense of waiting and no one returns your messages or emails. I will not give up but this has to be fixed!

The pandemic has taken it toll on the vibrant 1099 employment community. When the federal government responds with relief to the state of Georgia who is the DOL to thwart that effort?

This maybe a classic case of non business adapt attempting to respond in a space where competence is a struggle.

Assuming that state is unable to perform at the required federal authorized level of expectance prior to the end of July what happens to the bottleneck of approved citizens?

I am looking for help now. 05/05/20 notified no IU benefits of which was already a known. 05/28/20 notified PUA claim effective 02/02/20 weekly amount $365. 06/22/02 got into a wrong area of your site which regenerates the award letter but even later dates to respond.

What recourse do we have? Federal intervention? Class action Suite wouldn't that be rich as the DOL would be the hearing body of the government. Why not ask the federal government for the help that is desperately needed by the state instead of allowing Citizens to bear the full weight of a crumbled state system I'll prepared for the job.

My employer had been filing for me while I was on furlough, which I had no problem receiving my weekly benefits. My position with the company was permanently terminated Friday May 29 due to the virus. I personally filed for UI that weekend and received UI benefits the first week but shorted $181 dollars from the state but federal UI was correct. I've since filled online and every week since with no issues but received zero UI benefits. I tried calling, sending emails even to Mark Buttler, still no response! I did receive a letter from the GDOL saying at some point I was over paid $183 dollars but gives no reference date! Note: All my weekly benfits payments have been the same amount until I was shorted $181 dollars by the state when I personally first filled! The letter states I need to pay the $183 amount back by the first week of July or it will go into further collections! As noted above; no one at the GADOL are returung voicemails I left or emails I sent to explain the over payment, under payment or why I've not received my weekly benefits. At this point; do I need to contact my state representative or contact a lawer, please advise?

Thank you,

William J. Johnson

I tried to file for pua weeks ago when I didn't qualify for regular ga state unemployment. It was coming up invalid when I entered my ss# and pin #. Said to call for help etc. I've left several messages, no one has ever called me. I was finally able to go in yesterday and for some reason it worked. But I lost weeks of getting it when I couldn't get through and then no one called back to help. This isn't my fault. I know the unemployment office is overloaded but these issues have to be addressed. I am still unemployed so this has been hard. People are looking for jobs, perhaps hire them at the unemployment office. How am I supposed to get retro pua when I couldn't get in to the system at no fault of my own?

L maxwell

I file for unemployment in April, claimed 7 weeks of unemployment so far, no payment, you can not get them to answer the phone, if they do answer on hold for 30 minutes to an hour, then they answer and hang up on you. This complaint is with the Atlanta office, the Tifton office goes above and beyond but there lies your problem if the Atlanta office has to get involved. I wonder if I will ever get paid.

I have been trying to get in contact with someone who can look into my account for me to help me understand or figure out why my unemployment benefits have stopped. I filed for UI in April and received consistent weekly benefits. Then, my employer filed on my behalf and since May 7th I have not received any payments. In total I only received 4 payments. I have emailed a few times as well as called numerous times over the past few weeks and I have not received a response. I would really like an answer to this issue as soon as possible.