GREENSBORO, N.C. — On a recent Tuesday morning, with the sun shining bright, Willie Watson took the opportunity to go outside and sweep the front porch and steps to her Greensboro home. Watson had a lot of spare time on her hands after her workplace was forced to close during the pandemic.
“The whole company had to shut down,” Watson said.
Watson worked at the dining hall on the UNCG campus. Almost all of the staff was essentially furloughed for several months during the peak of the coronavirus.
“I was worried, I kept praying,” Watson said.
Watson's landlord worked with her on paying the rent. But there were other bills that needed to be paid, and no money coming in.
Watson applied for unemployment benefits, but there were problems from the start. She filed online and provided what she believed was the necessary information, but her claim was delayed.
“They (DES) said to wait, I had to keep waiting, I got tired of waiting,” Watson said.
The waiting would last weeks and then months, but the claim was never approved, and Watson wasn’t sure why. Calls to DES were not helping, so Watson reached out to News 2.
After gathering all the necessary information about the claim, we contacted a representative with DES. About a week later, Watson’s claim was approved and DES sent her funds that included back-pay from the first time she applied.
When Watson looked in her bank account an extra $7,000 was available.
“Thank you, News 2, for reaching out to me, and thank you for helping me,” Watson said.
These days, Watson has less time to clean up around the house. She is back working at the UNCG dining hall, and thanks to a friendly landlord, she is able to pay her back rent a little at a time.