Editorial: Fix the unemployment mess in Illinois
Secretary of State offices are open. Police stations are open. Courthouses and parole offices are open. Department of Children and Family Services offices are open. Schools are open. Public health departments are open.
So why, at a time when thousands of Illinoisans have struggled to receive the unemployment benefits to which they’re entitled, have Illinois Department of Employment Security offices remained closed? Doors locked to the public?
Oh! We know. Because of the pandemic, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and IDES officials switched to a helpful, automated, efficient phone and online system for claimants. It’s really convenient and easy. Just call the hotline number and an eager employee will help you with your benefits claim. That way, the bricks and mortar unemployment offices can keep their doors locked, as they have for more than a year. Just use your phone and your laptop.
Right?
Wrong.
Not only has Illinois’ delivery of unemployment benefits been a disaster with thousands of cases of fraud and legitimate claimants unable to get through on the phone, the offices themselves have been closed to the public. WBBM-Ch. 2 Chicago has been all over the story for months, interviewing dozens of understandably frustrated people who can’t get through to the state agency in any way, shape or form.
“If it was the other way around and it was them losing their money, they would definitely want those offices open,” unemployment claimant Perry Turner told CBS 2.
That sounds about right. When the state wants its income or sales tax revenue from residents and businesses, it finds a way to get it. But when unemployment benefits to which people are entitled get held up, it’s less of a priority. The year-long-and-counting timeline of slow-to-no benefits processing at IDES is proof.
At one point last spring and summer, people unemployed due to the pandemic were absolutely desperate for help. Jeff of Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood told us he made about 400 calls to various state agencies. “I still can’t get a live voice. It’s seriously frustrating. I am back to work full time at the end of July. … I am wondering what people not as fortunate as myself are going to do.”
Pritzker this week cited security concerns and threats as the reason for the still-closed offices. He said the agency is working with state police to figure out a safe reopening plan.
But that doesn’t quite add up. The agency’s website says: “In order to protect everyone through social distancing, IDES offices are closed to the public until further notice.” And plenty of other state offices with public-facing services — and probably a frustrated public — have managed to open their doors.
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House Republican Joe Sosnowski of Rockford introduced a resolution to force the buildings to open.
“Why are our unemployment offices in the state of Illinois still closed?” he asked on the House floor. “It is now almost the month of May 2021, and our unemployment offices around the state are closed. I don’t believe this is a political issue. I know members on both sides of the aisle have the same concern.”
“This is a governance issue, this is a leadership issue, this is not a political issue,” Sosnowski said.
As of early May, 15,134 new unemployment claims had been filed at the agency. That compares to nearly 74,500 a year ago, a considerable drop. So why can’t this agency get its act together?
It’s a question no one in the Pritzker administration seems able, or willing, to answer.
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