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Trenton Times/NJ.com Page 1 article on Smith initiative to roll back NJ DoL restrictions on helping jobless residents'Unemployment complaints from angry residents still pouring into N.J. congressional offices'

'If somebody’s hurting, the welcome mat is out. They call us after they have tried and tried and tried. All of us are last resorts. They already tried the system. The system failed them.' - Rep. Chris Smith

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TRENTON, NJ , Mar 25, 2021 | comments

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By Jonathan D. Salant | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Eight months after a contentious conference call with Gov. Phil Murphy, members of the New Jersey congressional delegation say they’re still being forced to handle complaints from angry constituents about delayed or missing unemployment insurance payments.

Several lawmakers or their staff members acknowledged to NJ Advance Media that requests for help continue to pour into their offices, even as call volumes are down from last summer, when angry House Democrats brought their complaints directly to Murphy.

'If somebody’s hurting, the welcome mat is out. They call us after they have tried and tried and tried. All of us are last resorts. They already tried the system. The system failed them.' - said Rep. Chris Smith, R-4th Dist., who said his office has solved 900 cases and is working on 700 more.

“It’s troubling to me that this is still an issue,” said Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-7th Dist., who reported helping 1,170 constituents with another 617 cases pending. “I know that it’s partly the result of an antiquated system that we have not invested in for far too long. It’s a reminder that we actually do need to invest in modern government services in the country because all of us may need them some day.”

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-12th Dist., said calls about unemployment issues “continue among the most common calls our office gets.”

“Thankfully - while some issues still persist – by working closely with our partners on the state level, we’re no longer seeing the chaos that resulted from an overloaded system like we did this time last year.”

And Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-5th Dist., said: “Yes, it’s incredibly frustrating, but they’ve improved significantly.”

State Labor Department spokesman Thomas Wright acknowledged the difficulties the agency faced after a record number of New Jerseyans sought unemployment insurance as businesses suddenly shut down during the coronavirus pandemic. The agency has sent $24.8 billion to 1.5 million New Jersey claimants, Wright said.

“We’ve made no secrets about the challenges that spread far beyond New Jersey’s borders to literally all 53 jurisdictions overseeing unemployment insurance during this pandemic,” Wright said.

“While we’re proud of the relief we have been able to deliver to our residents, the fact remains that our federal unemployment system was created in 1934 and barely updated over the years, causing needless hardship to our workers.”

In the last year, more than 2 million unemployment claims have been filed to the state Department of Labor, and tens of thousands of claimants have faced major delays and issues in getting their benefits, due to the sudden flood of claims and technological hurdles.

While unemployment is a state issue, New Jersey members of Congress have been receiving hundreds of complaints from their constituents trying to get their weekly payments.

“If somebody’s hurting, the welcome mat is out,” said Rep. Chris Smith, R-4th Dist., who said his office has solved 900 cases and is working on 700 more. “They call us after they have tried and tried and tried. All of us are last resorts. They already tried the system. The system failed them.”

Smith complained in a March 10 letter to Murphy that the state Labor Department limited him to submitting just 13 cases a week to be resolved. The letter first was reported by the Asbury Park Press. He said Monday that the cap was removed.

Wright said that there were never restrictions. “We do not even know where that misinformation originated,” he said.

He acknowledged that all public officials, local, state and federal, receive calls from constituents needing help.

“Obviously in times of hardship, people turn to their elected officials,” he said. “This is what government is here for, and we are lucky to have such caring partners at the table during the largest economic disruption in history due to COVID-19.

Congress included $2 billion in funding to improve state unemployment insurance systems in the $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus law.

“These programs didn’t have a strong constituency until tens of millions of Americans suddenly lost their jobs,” Malinowski said.

In his letter to Murphy, Smith also complained about the lack of progress in helping his constituents get their benefits.

“The state must do better in finding a way to fix this broken system and deliver benefits as quickly as possible, a task with which I am happy to be a partner,” Smith wrote.

Murphy quickly answered back at his coronavirus press briefing Wednesday, pointing out that Smith voted against the stimulus law.

“When the bell was rung in terms of standing up for working families in the state, he voted against that,” Murphy said.

Members of the state Legislature also say they’ve been inundated with calls from constituents over unemployment.

On Monday, a Senate committee advanced a bill, S3505, that would require the Department of Labor to assign at least one unemployment claims handler to each legislative district and partisan office during the coronavirus pandemic.

NJ Advance Media staff writers Sophie Nieto-Munoz and Karin Price Mueller contributed to this report.

The above article was published on page one of the March 24, 2021 print edition of the Trenton Times and online at:
https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2021/03/unemployment-complaints-from-angry-residents-still-pouring-into-nj-congressional-offices.html

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