America is in crisis. The coronavirus pandemic has illuminated many of the fractures within America’s social safety net. With tens of millions unemployed, much attention has been brought to light as to the vast failures of outdated state unemployment systems. Horror stories of reprogramming ancient code, delayed payments, rude and inefficient customer service, and fraud litter any goodwill people have towards the unemployment insurance program.

According to the Winston Salem Journal, in my home state of North Carolina, since mid-March, 1.21 million North Carolinians have filed a combined 2.06 million state and federal jobless claims. By mid-June that number blossomed, it is estimated that about 28.5% of the 4.23 million North Carolinians considered in the state’s workforce have filed a state or federal unemployment claim. These people come from all walks of life, both Republican and Democrat, rural and urban.

I am one of those people. I lost both of my jobs in the hospitality industry, and neither one of those jobs are coming back soon. It took the North Carolina unemployment system 2.5 months to issue me payment. During that time I had persistent and pervasive anxiety and surely felt on the brink of a mental breakdown. Dealing with NC DES, the official title of the NC unemployment division, was one of the most stressful and angering experiences of my life, and I’ve had some damn stressful and angering moments.

Every encounter I attempted with NC DES led me to a dead end. The website was continually changing and subsequently crashing. My former employer was just as dazed and confused as I was and once, only once did I speak with an actual human representative. I called hundred of times over 2.5 months and only spoke to a live human once.

As the mounting financial and mental stress from no income racked my spirit, I did happen upon a lifeline. A group on facebook where people also unemployed in my state were joining together to help each other understand the NC DES system and get much needed assistance. In this group I realized that I, like many others were on the cliff of financial ruin. There were people, like me, that had never been on unemployment and didn’t quite understand the next steps to take in order to get assistance. There were many people, like me, that had been given the run around from pretty much every public official during this pandemic. There were people, like me, that knew their jobs weren’t coming back and were scared for the future. This group contained thousands of Americans pleading for someone to listen, to care, and to help.

North Carolina has some of the worst unemployment benefits in the country. The state doesn’t have a minimum benefit and caps the maximum benefit at $350. The number that NC DES pays out every week is known as the weekly benefit. My weekly benefit is $212, after taxes $91. Many posts in the group seem to be within the 100-250 range. This extraordinary low income forces many of us far below the poverty line through no fault of our own. The CARES Act added a much needed $600 extra benefit that kept many of the unemployed above water. Unfortunately with the lapse of the federal $600, which accounted for 76.8% of all UI payments to North Carolinians, these people are drowning once more. Here are their stories.