CT RESIDENTS STILL FRUSTRATED WITH UNEMPLOYMENT SYSTEM AND DELAYS FIVE YEARS AFTER PANDEMIC

Front of the Department of Labor Building. Photo, CT Department of Labor Website

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Connecticut prides itself on entering 2025 with a focus on continuing its economic growth and employment opportunities. However, not all residents are feeling the benefits. Long wait times, unclear communication, and a system bogged down by inefficiency are just a few of the continued frustrations that many Connecticut residents face as they wait for their unemployment benefits.

Carla Esquivel, executive director of the Stamford-based advocacy group "Nosotras," has received numerous complaints from members about delayed or denied unemployment claims. She sees these delays as part of a larger, ongoing issue affecting many residents across Connecticut.

“We've seen a pattern of individuals waiting without any clear communication,” Esquivel explained. “The Department is often unresponsive, and when they do respond, it’s either with vague explanations or, worse, no explanation at all.”

Esquivel says her organization has helped many clients who were left without support for extended periods. In some cases, she notes, families have been forced into homelessness, unable to pay for basic necessities like food and rent while waiting for their unemployment claims to be processed. Despite filing for benefits early on, some individuals still await a resolution.

“The backlog is real,” Esquivel says, “And it’s putting so many people in extremely precarious situations.”

Esquivel has spent years advocating for reform, collaborating with workers' rights groups to support diverse communities, including undocumented workers. She calls for increased transparency, faster responses, and a complete overhaul of the claims system. Now, she is urging state legislators to address delays and allocate resources to improve services for residents.

“The majority of people who come to our organization are those who have the least resources and who suffer the most. Undocumented workers are even more vulnerable”, Esquivel says. “If the Department of Labor doesn’t speed up the process, we’re all lost. If the system is not working, how can we trust it?”

Kayla Herrick, 31, from New Britain, described her ongoing struggle with the Department of Labor Appeals Division after being denied unemployment benefits. She’s shocked that the process has remained unchanged, even five years after the pandemic.

“They denied me in the first place, and when I appealed, they denied me again,” Herrick said. “It took almost 10 months to get everything processed.! In the meantime, I was living on credit cards, doing gig work just to survive.”

Herrick’s ordeal began in 2021 when she left her job in Farmington, a company that has since shut down. She filed for unemployment the very day she left but was initially denied. What followed was a drawn-out and exhausting process involving several appeals and hearings, during which she felt like the system was working against her at every turn.

 “They had originally denied me. And then I appealed, and then we had a hearing, and I provided more evidence, and then I was denied again”, she says. “Then I appealed, and then it went to, the highest level in that system, and then it just sat there from January until like October. It was ridiculous, the entire process”. Herrick says. 

According to Herrick, she left her job due to troubling signals from a co-worker that made her feel unsafe. Despite filing for unemployment, her claim was delayed for nearly 10 months. When she contacted the Connecticut Department of Labor for updates, she says encountered dismissive, unhelpful, and often rude responses.

“ I said that I was very concerned for my well-being, considering my co-worker who worked three feet away from me was arrested for voyeurism. Those should have been automatic approvals, there's no reason it should have been denied”, Herrick said “ I just felt every single person didn't care.”

Eventually, she reached out to her state senator for help. After months of follow-ups, her case was finally processed, but she is unsure whether the senator's intervention made a difference.

“At 10 months, I'm calling back and I'm emailing my senator, and demanding somebody to actually call me back and give me an update. He put me in touch with an advocacy [group]. And then every time I called in, I would follow up with him”. Herrick says.

Department of Labor Responds: Acknowledging Backlog and Process Constraints

In response to the ongoing concerns, Juliet Manalan, communication director at the Connecticut Department of Labor says they acknowledge the appeals delays, attributing them to the overwhelming number of claims, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic and implementing federal relief programs.

“The Appeals Division is a quasi-judicial agency independent from CTDOL that reviews CTDOL unemployment decisions,” Manalan said. “Due to the pandemic and the creation of several CARES Act Unemployment Insurance pandemic relief programs, the Appeals Division received tens of thousands of appeals submitted by employers and claimants. In 2022, there were approximately 20,000 pending Appeals cases. 

Manalan says that “As of now, there are 4,200 cases pending”, but they “expect to complete all CARES Act cases this year.”

Meanwhile, residents report being told that the Appeals Division is overwhelmed, with cases being processed at a court-like pace due to a massive backlog caused by the pandemic. Additionally, they are being told that each case is placed in a queue, where the computerized system processes them in the order they were received.

Manalan says that while delays persist in the appeals process, there is “no backlog” in the processing of regular unemployment claims. 

“ReEmployCT is the state’s online unemployment benefits system. As is required under state and federal law, CTDOL staff make all decisions related to eligibility and benefits payments. ReEmployCT is not an AI system.”

Audit Finds Connecticut Department of Labor Failed to Assign Hundreds of Cases for Investigation

Another growing concern involves the state Department of Labor’s Wage and Workplace Standards Division. A July 2024 audit revealed that as of May 2023, nearly 850 complaint cases, ranging from unpaid wages to other labor violations, had been filed but were unassigned for investigation. Fast forward to 2025, and delays persist.

“The Wage and Workplace Standards Division has a high caseload, around 2,000 cases with roughly half being in investigation and the other half in queue waiting for an investigator,” 

Manalan says. “There are about 21 investigators. They continue to work through cases as expediently as they can.”

Esquivel says  that since the issue was first raised early in  2024, there has been little progress, with the Department of Labor failing to deliver on its promises. Many members of her organization continue to experience significant delays in their investigations, with numerous inquiries going unanswered. This is especially challenging for non-English-speaking workers, who are often left in limbo without sufficient support or resolution.

“We try to teach workers how to negotiate and defend their rights. It’s heartbreaking to hear that, even though they have worked so hard, they don’t get paid what they’re owed. The community needs the Department of Labor to act with more urgency and responsibility.”

ReEmployCT System: Still Facing Complaints

Claimants have raised concerns about the ReEmployCT system, citing issues like system crashes, missing documentation, and difficulty accessing claims. The system also schedules customer service appointments days in advance, causing delays for those who need urgent assistance.

“ReEmployCT is a stable system that is available 24/7.” Manalan says. “When we take the system offline to make updates, we post the times on the Consumer Contact Center webpage. Global outages or slowdowns can impact ReEmployCT, but those are outside of CTDOL control.”

Manalan says that many issues claimants report are preventable errors, and are encouraged to carefully read the application questions and use the Department’s online resources to resolve common problems.

“What is going on with new system. We got closed out after 2 attempts on password”, Shea Miller, a resident seeking unemployment benefits says. “ It is taking longer just to schedule a call back. Been waiting 2 days for scheduling a call back. Usually I call in [and a] rep sends me link and boom a day or two later I can file”. 

"Good luck with the call back", Meghan Roy another resident seeking benefits, responded. "They were supposed to call me Monday and didn't."

The Department says that “Consumer Contact Center callback times are dependent upon unemployment filing volume. ‘During peak times, the wait time is longer. In November, the Contact Center handled more than 29,000 phone calls.”

Esquivel argues that the over-automation of the system treats all cases uniformly, ignoring the urgency and unique circumstances of individual claimants.

“When I hear "computerized system," it feels like everything is being handled impersonally. Computers can’t understand the details of each case the way a human can. This creates delays and doesn’t really solve anything. What’s worse is that laws are passed, like paid sick days, but there’s no follow-through. If there’s no follow-up, the laws are meaningless.

A Call for Change

“The people who answer the phone at the Department of Labor need to understand what it’s like to be in a situation where you’re relying on unemployment benefits just to survive,” Herrick says. “They need empathy training, they need better communication skills, and they need to actually listen to people’s concerns. This process shouldn’t be this hard.”

Esquivel echoed this call, stressing that now is the time for the state to address the growing backlog and ensure the Department of Labor expedites unemployment benefits for residents struggling to receive timely assistance.

“We can’t afford to let people fall through the cracks like this,” Esquivel says. “Too many people are already struggling, and the government should be there to help, not to make things more difficult.”

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