PHOENIX — Erica Calderon used to work as a substitute teacher in the West Valley before the coronavirus began to plague Arizona, killing more than 5,000 people and sickening more than 202,000 as of Wednesday.
When the schools closed, her job went away too, leaving her with just one option: Apply for unemployment through the Arizona Department of Economic Security.
That was back in March. Calderon said she has applied for Arizona's Pandemic Unemployment Assistance every week since and, more than five months later, she said very single week says "in progress."
Calderon said she used to work as a substitute teacher for Peoria Unified School District and Deer Valley Unified School District since 2012 and before that, she said she taught for Peoria Unified School District from 2008 to 2011.
She's now taking on a new role as a teacher to her elementary-aged children, who are participating in distance learning. They also have no childcare.
The pandemic not only impacted her job, but her husband's too: She said her husband's income was affected with businesses closing.
Calderon said she got paid one lump of $2,100 in the spring that the department sent all independent contractors and hasn't gotten anything since. She said that she is missing multiple weeks of unemployment payments.
"Every week's claim says 'pending,'" she said in an email. "I can’t get any answers as nobody answers the phones or responds to emails."
Going without her unemployment benefits has meant making lots of sacrifices: Calderon said her family has had to replace one air conditioning unit using their coronavirus stimulus money and financed the rest. She also said they had to repair a second unit, which they dipped into their savings accounts for.
"We’ve also had both of our vehicles maintenanced," Calderon said.
"And our entire drip lines replaced after discovering a huge leak and paying that water bill. We've had huge costs with dramatically less income."
Calderon is far from the only person who has had to wait for their unemployment benefits.
Desrae Omo is a landscaper and a yard worker who said they only qualified for Arizona's Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.
They're helping watch four children between the ages of three months to 6 years old when schools and childcare facilities began to shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"At first I was getting regular weekly payments but not the back pay," Omo said in an email.
"As of three weeks ago, the weekly payments stopped."
Now Omo said their mortgage is going on two months late and despite calling the Arizona Department of Economic Security multiple times, they said they have only been able to talk to three people over the last three months.
"I finally got through to talk to someone and they said, it’s backed up and all you can do is wait," Omo said.
"I said, 'There is no open issues on my claim, and no one can tell me why my payments stopped.'"
"Talk about insult to injury. This is why people are so frustrated," Omo continued.
In total, Omo said they are missing 22 unemployment payments.
"They call and call to get help to see what is the hold up and no one has answers. It’s just a waiting game. I feel terrible all the people who just want to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table but they can’t get anyone to help them."
The Arizona Department of Economic Security has previously said that the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance brought in more fraud to the state than regular unemployment insurance.
Brett Bezio with the Arizona Department of Economic Security told 12 News that he could not provide any specific case information, but said there are more than one million Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims that were flagged for fraud.
"The department has been working closely with data analytics companies, financial institutions, state and federal partners to review these claims and identify those eligible for benefits," Bezio said in an email.
"As a result of this work, during the week of August 16 DES was able to process and pay approximately 90,000 of those claims determined to be eligible, and we issued $738 million in benefits that week."
Bezio said the department has since identified an additional 5,000 eligible claims, which it is processing.
"The department continues to work with data analytics companies to continue to review and process the remaining claims flagged for fraud, and will issue benefits to those determined eligible," Bezio said.
He added that the department has also made "significant progress" processing unemployment claims, "reducing the number of claims awaiting adjudication to 12,000 from 38,000 as reported two weeks ago."
The department has also taken back $70 million from what was believed to be fraud from out of state accounts.
If you believe your unemployment account was incorrectly closed due to fraud claims, you are asked to email AZUIFraud@azdes.gov.
If you have not received your unemployment benefits and want to share your story with 12 News, please email connect@12News.com.