Prairie State Wire

One by one, state Rep. Charlie Meier (R-Okawville) ticks off the horror stories Illinois residents have relayed to him from their dealings with the Illinois Department of Employment Security at a time when they needed the agency most.

“It was taking weeks to get return calls from IDES,” Meier said of the state agency that handles all unemployment claims. “The system has been horrible for state residents to work with. How should anybody have to wait weeks for this?”

While Meier concedes the last few weeks have seen things get a little better, he quickly adds “but we’re a year into this. It shouldn’t take a year.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic has lingered and the job losses have piled up, a growing number of state lawmakers are stressing that the pain and suffering doesn’t ended there. They say more of their constituents have begun to show signs of severe depression and even suicidal thoughts due to all the frustrations.

“It’s been a disaster all along. Back when it was brought to administration’s attention that there had been a breach in security where you could pull up people’s names, Social Security numbers and birthdays, it took the administration about three days to get back to people,” Meier said. “I and my staff have been out there informing people how to address this. Hopefully there’s someone looking into all of this.”

Meier says as bad as how slow the system goes, sometimes it's worse for applicants when the system does move.

“Lots of our citizens are afraid to answer unknown calls or have to go pick up medicine or somewhere else and only have a land line; and if you miss their call it’s a mess,” he said.