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   From: bksherman@outlook.com   
      
   THANKS DEMOCRATS.   
      
   Jeanne Flynn lost her job at a New Jersey restaurant in March.   
   It took months to start receiving unemployment benefits, and   
   she’s still trying to access more than $14,000 in back pay.   
      
   As a result, she used credit cards to cover basic needs for her   
   family.   
      
   Her story illustrates the financial stress the unemployment   
   system has caused thousands of workers during the coronavirus   
   pandemic.   
      
   Jeanne Flynn used to worry about money. But never like this.   
      
   Flynn, 34, lost her restaurant job in March as the coronavirus   
   pandemic raged.   
      
   Months of waiting for unemployment benefits and little savings   
   forced Flynn, who has two young children and is still out of   
   work, to use credit cards to live.   
      
   Nine months later, the damage has been substantial: $20,000 in   
   new debt, a negative bank-account balance and a plummeting   
   credit score, records show.   
      
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   “Everything went onto a credit card,” said Flynn, who lives in   
   Beachwood, New Jersey. “It’s a lot of small stuff that added up   
   to a lot of big stuff.   
      
   “I can’t even look at [the balance],” she added. “It makes me   
   sick.”   
      
   Flynn and her husband, from whom she’s separated, owe their   
   landlord two months of rent. Flynn gave up her car and is   
   subsisting on food stamps. Childcare duties make it tough to   
   find another job, especially when she doesn’t have the money for   
   a babysitter.   
      
   “I’m to the point where I don’t know what to do,” Flynn said.   
      
   System under stress   
   Flynn is one of millions of Americans who’ve fallen through the   
   cracks in the country’s safety net for the unemployed since the   
   start of the pandemic, which caused joblessness unseen since the   
   Great Depression almost a century ago.   
      
   State labor agencies buckled under a deluge of applications for   
   jobless benefits in the early days of the economic crisis.   
      
   Chart showing weekly initial unemployment claims in 2020 through   
   November 14.   
   More than 6 million people filed for state unemployment   
   insurance during two separate weeks in the early spring alone —   
   six times the prior weekly record set in the early 1980s,   
   according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.   
      
   Extreme delays permeated the system. In January, about 93% of   
   people were paid within three weeks of applying for benefits —   
   the typical barometer for a timely payment. By September, that   
   share had plummeted to about 60%, according to the U.S. Labor   
   Department.   
      
   “This situation is very new,” said Sarah Hymowitz, chief   
   attorney at Legal Services of New Jersey, who represents low-   
   income clients in unemployment matters. “We’ve never had this   
   level of intensity.”   
      
   States have largely recovered and are getting a handle on their   
   backlogs, according to unemployment experts. But, with roughly   
   20 million people still collecting benefits nationwide, workers   
   are still running into problems.   
      
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   About 1 in 5 people paid in September had waited more than two   
   months for that check to arrive, according to the Labor   
   Department.   
      
   Months of waiting may spell disaster for those like Flynn who   
   have few financial resources at their disposal.   
      
   “Without that cushion, when an emergency like a pandemic or job   
   loss or wage loss strikes, the fall is immediate and precipitous   
   and it can be impossible to recover from,” said Emily Benfer, a   
   law professor at Wake Forest University and an eviction expert.   
      
   Those who lost employment income during the Covid-19 pandemic   
   have been much more likely to use credit cards or loans, borrow   
   from friends or family, and reallocate money from deferred bills   
   to meet regular spending needs than those who didn’t lose their   
   jobs, according to a recent U.S. Census Bureau survey.   
      
   Dead end   
   Flynn quickly ran into a dead end when applying for benefits in   
   New Jersey, after losing her waitressing and bartending job   
   around St. Patrick’s Day.   
      
   The online system wouldn’t let her input information to begin a   
   claim, she said. Jammed phone lines made it impossible to reach   
   a state labor representative.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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