Woman Struggling To Find Relief After Quitting Her Job For A Job That Was Rescinded Due To COVID-19
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Early March had been so promising for Jessica Wozniczka and her family.
"I was the bread winner in my family, for my kids and my wife. It's not good. We're not in a good situation right now," Wozniczka said.
She left a job to take a new job, but days before she was to start with the new company things changed.
"I found out my job was rescinded due to the COVID pandemic," she said. "The company had to reduce costs, reduce expenses and any potential new hires were frozen."
The job she had been set to take was suddenly gone. The next day, Wozniczka, who lives in the north suburbs, applied for unemployment relief. Her claim was denied because the State of Illinois said she had quit the old job, though she resigned to take a new job that didn't materialize.
She then sought relief from the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance fund, a federal program administered by the State of Illinois and created to help workers like Wozniczka. She has had no success there either.
"I used to run customer service departments. Get 5 or 10 reps manually processing these behind the scenes. There has to be a way to push these through," she said.
What can be done to help workers like Jessica Wozniczka? CBS 2's asked Gov. JB Pritzker this Tuesday.
"We'll certainly look into that," Pritzker said. "I understand what the challenge is, and I appreciate you bringing that to our attention. It's something we want to make sure to look into."
Nearly two months after Wozniczka first filed for unemployment she has nothing.
"It needs to get fixed," she said.
She said when she has talked to phone operators they have no idea what to tell her, adding to her frustration.
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance is a temporary program designed to help some gig workers and others who've lost work because of COVID-19 but unable to get relief under existing programs and to help workers like Jessica.
