NEENAH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Wisconsin’s unemployment rate in April 2019 was less than 3%. It wasn’t much higher all the way up through this past March.
But in April, all non-essential businesses were closed across Wisconsin for the entire month.
“Through the Great Recession, we didn’t quite get to 10%,” said Department of Workforce Development chief economist Dennis Winters. “I think the national number peaked out at 10% and, if you go back, even into the double-dip recessions in the early 80s, we never saw anything this high.”
All those people out of work has jammed-up the state’s unemployment system.
A Neenah woman tells FOX 11 she has tried for weeks, and still hasn’t seen a penny, and probably never will.
“We don’t get the same protection as you get, as a regular worker,” said Jacqueline Reeves. “That is not fair!”
Reeves was 27 when she found out she has MS.
“I worked from 2001 to 2009, and then I got so sick that I had to apply for disability.”
Reeves couldn’t work, and she can’t make ends meet on disability benefits, alone.
“I’ll be honest, I get a little over $800 a month in social security, my rent is $700.”
So, she has no choice but to try.
“I mean, I do enjoy to work, but it’s not just because I wanted to, it’s because I didn’t get enough on disability to raise three kids with,” said Reeves.
Reeves found a part-time job a year and a half ago. She resigned at the beginning of March for a full-time gig.
“I took a job making a decent amount of money, great benefits, great hours and they’ll accommodate my limitations as being disabled, which is a very hard thing to find!” she said.
Reeves was supposed to start in April.
Then, COVID-19 entered the picture.
“First of April, I’m due to start my new job, however, that job no longer exists!” Reeves said. “So I, of course, filed for unemployment.”
It’s the first time Reeves ever had to file for unemployment.
“If you leave a job and give notice, and then your new job for some reason doesn’t happen, you got laid off, they closed downyou qualify under regular rules for unemployment.”
Week after week, she filed and waited.
Nothing ever came.
“If you receive social security or social security disability, and you work and get laid off, you cannot get unemployment.”
And she says, there are a lot more people with stories like hers than you might think.
“Grandma sitting in a pit of despair, full of bills that she’ll never pay, or Aunt Susie, who’s in a wheelchair, who can’t get their meds, because she doesn’t have the funds for their copay, or gas for her car, for that matter.”
If you need to file for unemployment benefits, click here.
