GREENSBORO, N.C. — During a virtual town hall an out of work restaurant server named Jennifer expressed frustration to Senator Thom Tillis about how hard it is to get a response on her unemployment application.
"When can I get a check, if I'm getting a check? I'm afraid I hit something wrong, and I can't get someone on the phone to correct it," she said.
"I know that it's frustrating. You will qualify for it. So please continue to go online," Tillis responded.
The Senator asked Jennifer to think about her restaurant. If they went from serving 3,000 customers a week to 400,000. That's how much the unemployment claims have jumped in North Carolina.
"I know that Governor Cooper, who I believe is doing a good job, has added resources to the call center," Tillis said. "And they're trying to increase the capacity of the online portal that you can go and apply to."
Tillis says part of the delay is also because the Federal government approved an extra $600 per week on top of what the state pays out.
"The unemployment office is trying to figure out how to make that operational. If you continue to try and you continue to have problems then contact my office at our website. Because we're also trying to work with the Department of Employment Security to make sure we get your request processed," Tillis said.
Tillis ended the conversation with some food for thought. He says if you apply online, the benefits will be back payed to when you applied not when your application is processed.
"Like everything else, we're learning, we're scaling and we're trying to do the best that we can," Tillis said. "The resources are there, we just gotta get them out the door."