James hasn’t received his unemployment benefits in 78 days.
After being laid off from his bartending jobs at Streets Market and Cranes in March, he successfully applied for unemployment insurance. His benefits ran out after 26 weeks, as is customary, so he applied for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, a 13-week extension of benefits the federal government pays under the CARES Act.
Despite placing more than 300 calls and sending more than 100 emails to unemployment offices in D.C. and Virginia, the Ward 8 resident has yet to see a cent. (James is a pseudonym because he fears being named would mean the unemployment offices would stop returning his emails altogether.)