For the past year, The Let Joe Know team has taken your unemployment complaints to state leaders. We most recently got one from Jeremy, who says he hasn't gotten a dime since applying in July of 2020.
"We're getting overwhelmed with things that normally we wouldn't be overwhelmed with," said Jeremy.
At first, Jeremy thought the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Money or PUA was a sign that things were going to be okay, especially when the coronavirus shut down all his gigs as an audio engineer.
"Through prayer, we've been able to survive," said Jeremy.
Under PUA, his benefits were backdated to March 1, 2020, but here we are a year later, and Jeremy says he hasn't seen a penny.
"I've calculated up to last week, it's $16,500," said Jeremy. "That's what's unpaid so far."
He says there hasn't been a single issue flagged on his account. When he's called in, Jeremy says he made sure they had all the documents they needed. They said he was all set, but that DES was taking a closer look at claims.
"I was told all cases were turned over to an arbitrator because of all the fraud," said Jeremy.
The Let Joe Know Team with The Rebound Arizona first broke the story about potentially thousands of fraudulent claims back in June.
People across the Valley reported receiving debit cards from DES with thousands of dollars available to use.
At the time DES said scammers were using other people's information but adding their bank account information. When the bank account couldn't be verified, the debit card was issued.
Since the LJK Team's stories first aired, DES has changed the way it sends out Debit cards, cross-verifying employment records with claims, and most recently the ID-ME verification process.
In months past, DES has stated they have greatly reduced the number of pending claims by the thousands, but when we asked them about this and several other issues, they did not get back to us by our deadline.
Meanwhile, no answer as to why Jeremy is still waiting a year later.
If you are still facing issues with your DES claims - emails us at Rebound@abc15.com
