Department of Employment Services of District of Columbia — Attraction in Washington

I applied for unemployment benefits under PUA in April 2020 after I lost my job due to COVID-19 (the contract was furloughed indefinitely). After I was approved, I sent a weekly claim per advice of my case manager at the time. Around October 2020, I was sent all of the PUA benefits that I had not received despite sending in weekly claims. After that, I did not apply for benefits again because I had restarted school and honestly, it was too much of a hassle dealing with DOES so I resolved to just figure out my financial situation on my own without further pursuing benefits. So, December 22, 2022 rolls around, and I receive a Notice of Intent to Offset dated December 5, 2022 because apparently I owe DOES all of those benefits back in a debt. It's over $9,000. I am in absolute shock because as far as I knew, unemployment benefits, even under PUA, are not required to be paid back. Then I get in touch with somebody over at DOES's Fraud Unit (not sure how I ended up on their line, but whatever), and I was told that I was "monetarily ineligible" for benefits. How did I receive the money then? Apparently, the claim was never withdrawn. I just do not understand how I am being held responsible for a mistake that was not my fault. As far as I was ever made aware, I was eligible for benefits--otherwise, how did the claims get approved? How were the benefits sent to me from DOES? Someone over there had to approve it? I am just completely outdone at this point. I remember vividly fighting for PUA benefits because I was out of a job and struggling financially... I didn't even want to apply for benefits at first because I was stuck on the idea that I didn't want a handout. But I applied for PUA benefits, I was approved, and while none of the benefits were on time, they eventually showed up, and the money amount matched the number of weeks that the benefits had not been sent previously. But everyone and their mother was receiving benefits late because, as DOES told us all, everything was backed up on their end because of the pandemic's unprecedented impact. Nothing was amiss, and no one ever bothered to tell me that there might have been. And now I owe over $9,000 to DOES. I am a full-time graduate student who lives primarily off of minimal financial aid (less than $15,000 per academic year and summer), how am I supposed to even fathom paying for a mistake that was not my fault? I am simply outdone. Happy New...

UPDATE: Reach out to Councilmember Elissa Silverman's Office/Council of the District of Columbia, they are helping on behalf of those to get through to DoES.

The only reason why I'm not giving only 1 star is because there are certainly good people who are working on the front phone lines of the DoES, but unfortunately their ability to assist is quite limited. I filed my claim in late September and after a month and a half of not receiving unemployment, it took three phone calls to find out there was a hold on my claim (which was never communicated by phone, email or the online claim system) regarding severance, which in my case didn't make sense as to what issue there could possibly be.

I was asked to resend all my paperwork and HR contacts via their main email address and a week later I called to confirm that they received my email, which the gentleman who I spoke to apologized profusely as it was sitting in their inbox unread. I get an separate email from a support specialist from their adjudication team asking for all my paperwork and HR contacts AGAIN followed with an update that my claim was in the process of final determination. That was on December 9 with radio silence since then and after speaking with four different people (all of which kindly added inquiries on my behalf but couldn't connect me to my claims examiner or another person of support), I reached out to my former employer's HR department who confirmed that NO ONE has reached out to them since my claim was initially approved in Sept. So I'm left with the fact that the DoES has received my information three times over now to clear up something that shouldn't have been an issue in the first place, but wherever my claim has ended up it's not being looked at and there's no way for me to communicate to that person or any person for that matter that has the power to do anything about it.

My case is nowhere near the worst; I'm not blind to the fact that there have been almost 170,000+ claims since March and only so many employees to address them, but that doesn't excuse the fact that there are people who since the beginning of COVID-19 have not seen a single penny of unemployment and we don't have updates of how many claims are still stuck in limbo out of those 170,000+. We're almost a year into COVID-19 and there's no sense of any improvements being made to...

Attn Mr. Lee Thompson, the customer service at your agency is negative, desensitizing, and discouraging. Though I was calling to inquire about a summer youth employment opportunity for a teenager, I felt drained after reaching Mr. Ricky R. Goings and the admin assistant answering the calls.

Mr. Goings and the male admin assistant both spoke with negative intentions and gave me an outdated contact for the person I needed to talk with.

As an advocate and champion for African American youth and black men, I understand our plight and frustration. Especially those our Blackmen endure; however, for them to approach someone with a condensing tone because they are asking questions to create the best option for themself, and while you have a live person on the line after, getting nine voicemails and three disconnected numbers, you want to seize the moment.

I also explained to Mr. Goings that I was seeking alternative means just in case no one was able to get back to me before the start of work on Monday.

Also, Mr. Lee, can you assign a youth employee (perhaps the young man I was calling on behalf of ) to clean up your contact database? As citizens and community partners of the District, if we can do something to champion more self-love to empower your staff, let's work together and foster good vibes among one another. I say self-love because, as humans, we usually treat people how we feel about ourselves so for them to treat me so harshly can mean to many things for me assume but me not identifying their personal self image does not invalidate the horrible experience I had.

Mr. Goings, I hope you get some easy wins this weekend working on the needs of our children. Mr. Lee Thompson, please step in, sir, and employ partnerships and training to help our liaisons working on the front line. Best,...