'No Way To Obtain information': Struggling With NY's Unemployment

LYNBROOK, NY — Stephen Wangel has been out of work since mid March, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo first issued stay-home orders for New York due to the coronavirus pandemic. Right away, Wangel applied for unemployment money with the state.

He's still waiting for a response.

Wangel owns The Kitchen Loft in Lynbrook — a kitchen redesign business. He helps his customers draw up plans for their new kitchens, design them, pick out the materials, and then works with contractors to get the construction done.

Because of the nature of his business, he was forced to close when NY PAUSE was enacted. As Wangel puts it, he's a one-man shop, so he didn't have to worry about paying or laying off employees. Due to the way his business is structured, he's entitled to unemployment insurance. But he's having trouble getting it.

"I haven't taken a paycheck since March 15," Wangel said. "Short of two $600 payments from the state, I've got nothing. I'm just burning through personal money."

Wangel said the $600 payments were part of the expanded unemployment insurance that was enacted through the CARES act passed by Congress. That is supposed to be in addition to the regular unemployment payments he's supposed to get from the state. Payments that still haven't come, nearly three months after he first applied.

A month after he first applied, Wangel said the state changed things, and he had to reapply. So on April 15, he did.

"They asked me for a proof of income, which is my tax return," he said. "I emailed through their message center a copy of my tax return and also faxed it in. And it wasn't until two weeks later I found out they still didn't have my return."

Wangel said the only reason he found out about the missing return was because he had contacted Assemblywoman Judy Griffin's office, and they helped him get some answers. He resubmitted his tax return and was told he would hear back within a week.

That was about 10 days ago.

"The problem in the process is that there's just no way to obtain information," he said.

Wangel is also the president of the Lynbrook Chamber of Commerce. He said many of the business owners he works with there are having their own troubles with the Paycheck Protection Program. Thankfully, Wangel said he doesn't know of any businesses in the village that have been forced to close permanently yet.

Wangel has been paying for his expenses with his own savings. He's keeping money in his business to pay rent and utilities. "I'm going to have to do a boatload of advertising when we reopen, so I have money set aside for that, too," he said.

To keep his business afloat, Wangel has been burning through his personal savings. Since he was forced to close, he's already spent $11,000, he said. When his unemployment money finally comes through, it's supposed to backtrack to when he first filed a claim, so he should be made whole. But the question is still, when is that money coming?

The biggest problem, Wangel said, for both the unemployment insurance and the PPP loans, is a lack of communication. No one knows exactly what's going on, and they can't get in touch with people to find out.

"The governor has got to throw a lot more manpower into [the unemployment insurance]," Wangel said. "The first thing he's got to do is clear up the communications channel so everyone can know what their status is and know when the money is going to start flowing."