RICHMOND, Virginia – Sal Fama, 58, is among the dozens of CBS 6 viewers who have contacted us about how difficult it is – impossible, actually – to navigate the Virginia Employment Commission website. Or phone line.
And he has a special skill set. But that, apparently, was not enough
“It’s very, very frustrating because, as I said, I’m an IT guy,” said Fama. “I understand that, you know that programs go wrong, they go wrong, they do this, they do that.”
Fame pointed out that his line of work is sometimes project-based, so layoffs are not uncommon.
“I am a project manager, a slash project coordinator, in the IT field,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for over 25 years, I started out as a programmer and then moved on to project management, and I was fired about a year ago last February.”
He said he was sure that someone with his experience could figure out how to fix his problem, which was like something out of “Groundhog Day”.
“I went through the phone system, called, waited about three or four days, didn’t see a check, so I said, ‘well, let me call back and see what’s going on,'” he said. “And he asked me, again, to do the week that ended on February 13, 2021. So I did that and, at the end of the call, he said, ‘You have been confirmed’.”
Fame had been receiving benefits intermittently for the past year, but could not understand why the system would accept its weekly job update, which claimants should provide weekly about their availability to work and efforts to find it, but then nothing would happen.
Supplied to WTVR
“A few days later, he asked me again for the same week ending on 2/13/21, and I said, ‘I already did it twice. Okay, let me do it a third time,” said Fama. “So I did it a third time, I waited a few more days, I didn’t receive anything. That’s when I called you.”
VEC spokeswoman Joyce Fogg told us that claimants must start a new benefit year after having stayed in the system for 52 weeks. So Fama thought she could fix her problem by correcting her profile online.
But he came across several screens that he, someone quite familiar with computers and software, was unable to discover. He checked the programs he thought he was in and should be in, and then he was asked to send more documents.
Which documents?
He tried to call VEC.
“I have called that number [the VEC 866 number]”Said Fame.” And what happens there, is that you get to the point where you say, ‘all of our customer service employees are busy. Call again at another time. ‘So there is no request to say, leave a message, we will call you back. “
We’ve heard that before. With frighteningly high frequency.
We return to Fogg asking, how do you fix a situation like that of Fame, which certainly many claimants can face?
We received this response by email: “You must not be enrolled in two programs. You must apply for a regular UI [unemployment insurance] first and be denied, before you can apply for PUA [Pandemic Unemployment Assistance]. “
Fame thought he had been denied and thought he had signed up for PUA.
But solving this, let’s say, actually talking to a VEC social worker, apparently is not going to happen.
“It’s kind of sad, actually, because, you know, IT is IT,” said Fama. “I understand that problems happen, you can’t make this work or it works. It is very frustrating and unfortunate that they can’t solve things and at least answer, if not me, at least you.”
Fame recalls that he is among the many lucky ones who received his unemployment insurance. But it is again among the many that, when a problem arises, resolution can be extremely elusive.