Normally, unemployment wouldn’t be given to small business owners who lost their company due to lack of business, since it’s just an unfortunate part of the risk we take when making the choice to open that business. However, because of the Coronavirus, otherwise known as COVID-19, the pandemic has caused historical numbers of businesses to have to shut down; Businesses both large and small. Big business owners, while surely hit hard by this attempt to rid our country of the virus through isolation, will undoubtedly be able to bounce back after all is said and done and we return to our “normal” way of living again. The same can’t be said for all the small business owners though.

That is why our government decided to allow not just those who were let go/laid off due to their place of employment being forced to shut down to claim unemployment, but the record high number of small business owners whose businesses were devastatingly affected by this outbreak. When I first heard this news I thought, “Oh thank god! I won’t have to give up my business I’ve been working day in and day out trying to build up after-all!”

So, I went online to the unemployment website for my state, registered, answered all of the questions, and was promptly denied…wait, what? I thought small business owners were allowed unemployment just like everyone else affected financially by the Coronavirus?? I sulked for a day or two, not knowing what to do, until my friend told me to just reapply. “Yeah, for some reason you need to get rejected first and then you’ll get accepted.” While it was the dumbest thing I ever heard of, I reapplied. To my surprise, I was now accepted and eligible to start receiving unemployment benefits. On top of the unemployment I was about to start receiving, another bill was passed that would add an ADDITIONAL $600 a week on TOP of my unemployment! It was like all my financial woes were suddenly forgotten forever! That is, until I actually went and claimed my benefits.

As anyone who ever has, or is currently, claiming unemployment, it’s not a difficult thing to do. You just go online, answer a couple of questions about whether you’ve been looking for and able to work, and then click the “submit” button, and a couple of days later the funds are deposited into your account, or, you receive a check or debit card in the mail. I was backlogged a few weeks so my grand total I was told I should expect to receive in my bank account within the next couple of days was pretty huge. I was really excited, I won’t lie. So, I received the first email, stating that NJ Unemployment has received my claim and that I should expect a second email soon. The next day I received that second email, giving me my Claimant #, telling me how much money was claimed, and that the money was transferred and should be deposited into my account within 2 business days.

My day for making my claim was Thursday (it’s now Friday), so I figured Monday was the day I would receive my huge unemployment deposit. I must’ve checked my bank account over a hundred times that day, but my account didn’t get any bigger. “Alright, well maybe since I received the email on Friday and then it was the weekend, my deposit isn’t due until Tuesday,” I convinced myself. Tuesday came and went, and not a penny was added from unemployment. Then Wednesday went by, and Thursday, and finally, Friday…Still nothing.

I asked my friend how long it takes for him to receive his unemployment and he said it takes two days, every single time. This didn’t make me feel any better. So, I contacted unemployment the only way I could find; through email. There’s a phone number, but it literally just hangs up on you after explaining how there’s too many people calling in. I emailed them about three or four times in four days before I got a response basically just giving me directions on HOW to claim my benefits. I wanted to scream at them so badly, “I already know how!!! It’s YOU GUYS who don’t know how to put the money I claim INTO my bank account!”

Anyway, it’s been two weeks now and I still haven’t seen any of the money I claimed. I even claimed my benefits for the second time this past Friday. My friend decided to finally tell me that this is something that’s happening to A LOT of people right now due to how many are filing unemployment, and that someone he worked with told him he just got a huge batch of his money all at once recently.

The reason I felt the need to write this is not for me. It’s for anyone who feels like they’re the only one getting duped or let down by the unemployment system. I know I tried Googling this issue a bunch of times, hoping to find SOMETHING about how other people are experiencing what I’m going through and that my money will come sooner or later. I’m writing this for the person like me, anxiously scouring the internet looking for some solace knowing that it’s just that the unemployment system is being overflooded right now by a historic record number of people, and so there’s bound to be a lot of backlogging and errors in the systems. While it sucks to have to find other ways of making enough money to buy groceries or gas for my car, (I actually had to take out a personal loan for the first time in my life…) at least now I know that the money will arrive eventually. I just need to be patient and hope it comes sooner than later. But it’s on its way.