Many people who call Mary Irene Dickerson at Atlanta Legal Aid have issues with evictions. But then the lawyer learns that some of them are still waiting for unemployment benefits and can’t pay rent.
“We are seeing lots and lots of people that are not getting their unemployment benefits, and they deserve them,” she said.
They’re often people whose initial claims for unemployment were denied, but have appealed the decision. As of last week, 38,698 Georgians had such appeals pending, according the state Department of Labor.
Unemployment is denied for many reasons, such as someone was fired for drug or alcohol use, or something may be wrong with the paperwork. State officials have also admitted mistakes over the past few months, as they were implementing a new system to handle federal unemployment payments amid an onslaught of claims because of COVID-19.
“I think that’s what caused the problems, besides the huge number of people applying, there were so many errors in the process. People were appealing when they didn’t need to appeal, but because the process was unclear, because of the new programs,” Dickerson said.
