I can’t stress how much we are hurting. My child told me she’s hungry and it’s killing me as a dad. I feel worthless, and guilty. We’re down to nothing.
I’m a construction worker — a journeyman painter — and my work got shut down early in March because people started getting sick. I was approved for standby on March 8th and I’ve been trying to file for unemployment ever since then but the system is totally confusing and frustrating — they said I didn’t have enough hours to qualify but I know I did.
So I’ve been denied for 2 months now. They seem to want a return-to-work date when I don’t know when the sickness is going to be over.
I’ve been trying to get this solved since March but now it’s the end of April and I have 15 to 20 denial letters. I received five or six more letters last night that say I was denied denied denied. They seem to just be doing everything they can to deny me. And then they keep sending me computer-generated messages telling me to read something or do something that I’ve done 20 times already.
We’re hurting bad it’s been 2 months now and I don’t even have any food for my kid. I’m selling vehicles and furniture and using up all of our savings and they just keep sending me these messages and not even answering me.
I can’t stress how much we are hurting. My child told me she’s hungry and it’s killing me as a dad I feel worthless, and guilty. We’ve been staying at home since March 8th inside the house keeping things clean trying to do what’s right until I go back to work but we’re down to nothing. We sold all of our things — everything. We sold everything we have no food and we have no money.
They sent me an empty debit card and said I was approved and then said I was denied a week later with no explanation. They said I was approved but gave me not even a penny.
— Christopher G., Vancouver