Dustin Wheeler is a bar tender, an Uber and Lyft driver and a personal life coach. When the “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order was implemented late last month she lost most of her income.
“The arena where I work at completely shut down and Lyft and Uber driving was so slow it just became not even worth driving anymore.”
After losing her bar tending job, Wheeler applied for unemployment through the state of Michigan’s website. She says the process was simple and easy.
“There wasn’t anything new compared to how the process has always been and usually the process takes about 15-20 minutes to fill out.”
But it’s been three weeks ago since Wheeler applied and she hasn’t received an update.
“I’ve tried video chatting. I’ve tried calling. Either you can’t get through on the phone or it says there is more than a two hour wait and then it just hangs up on you.”
Last week, the Unemployment Insurance Agency added staff nearly quadrupling the call center workforce to 500 and expanded call center hours, but on Monday just as more gig workers, self-employed workers and low wage earners became eligible for benefits the Michigan unemployment website crashed.
