Marylanders frustrated over frozen unemployment accounts amid fraud investigation
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BALTIMORE (WBAL) — Many Marylanders who continue having a difficult time filing unemployment claims are reaching out to the 11 News I-Team with frozen accounts.
The problem is accounts are frozen while a broad fraud investigation is underway. The frustration is there are no calls back, no way to check the status of a claim. As one person put it, it’s like dealing with an electronic black hole.
Cory and Angela Connor, of Cecil County, have been waiting for an unemployment check for the past 10 weeks. They call the Maryland Department of Labor about their claim every other day.
“We are shouting into a black hole. We have no updates on our status,” Cory Connor said.
“You want somebody to listen, somebody to pay attention,” Angela Connor said.
Angela Connor is a trade show specialist whose work includes events at the Baltimore Convention Center. Cory Connor is a stagehand for live productions like “Wicked.”
The coronavirus pandemic shut down all of their job opportunities. And to make matters worse, the state froze their unemployment claims in late December to conduct a broad fraud investigation.
“We want someone to return a phone call. We are not the fraud problem. Whatever the problem is, it’s not me. I want to go back to work as soon as it’s available in my industry,” Cory Connor said.
The Connors said they have provided the state with all the information officials requested to prove their identity. They’ve exhausted their savings.
“You don’t spend a lot. You live very minimal, and you try to keep your money for your bills. And it is the first of the month, we paid all our bills and you pray for the next month,” Angela Connor said.
Since January, the DOL has detected 156,000 potentially fraudulent claims, but the department is reviewing and verifying documentation by hand.
“If I could gather my stuff and go to somebody else and say, ‘Look, here’s me.’ I would do that. There’s nobody. There’s no place, no person. It’s all electronic,” Cory Connor said. “You pray a lot. You hope that the system will eventually right itself.”
The Connors said they will have no money left in a couple of months. They hope to hold on until jobs in their industry return in September.
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