Early in the pandemic, the number of people applying for unemployment insurance (UI) skyrocketed around the country – from 200,000 to over 6 million within the month of March alone. America’s fragmented public benefits systems already struggled with clarity and accessibility, and the COVID-19 pandemic brought these long simmering issues to full boil.
When systems delivering public benefits became overwhelmed or unresponsive, people turned to Reddit, Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms in order to understand complex applications, share resource for obtaining benefits, and develop policy solutions.
State, local, and federal policymakers can learn from this experience frustrated users of public systems are creating roadmaps to help them improve government services.
The modest retirement account belonging to Samantha Velez’s family has been reset to zero.
Just last month, with the coronavirus pandemic gutting jobs and slashing the family’s incomes, that money was used for something more pressing: rent.
“Sometimes, you got to do what you got to do,” Velez said. “For now, we’re looking at the short-term goal, which is to make sure we have what the kids need.”
Across the Pikes Peak region and Colorado, people are scrambling to pay rent and stay off the streets dipping into retirement savings, moving in with relatives and frantically searching for the few remaining job openings still available. But many experts say those measures can only go so far, and over the next few months, thousands of people could lose their apartments and houses to eviction without more financial help or flexibility from landlords.