RALEIGH – When the General Assembly returns on Monday, May 18, one closely watched committee hearing will be concerning unemployment benefits in North Carolina. Senator Harry Brown (R-Onslow) tweeted a link to a legislative website to provide comments from the public on experiences when filing for unemployment benefits. The Senate’s Commerce and Insurance committee meets at 2 p.m. in room 643 of the Legislative Office Building.
Brown’s tweet says “Have an unemployment insurance horror story? The N.C. Senate is holding an oversight meeting on Monday to hold Gov. Cooper’s unemployment insurance office accountable.”
Last week, claims surpassed 1 million in the state and at that time, fewer than 45% of those claims had begun being paid out. As of a May 15 update, the Division of Employment Security says for claims effective as of March 15, 528,511 claimants have received some payments totaling $1.9 billion.
Sen. Phil Berger’s office even got directly involved in one case as reported by North State Journal.
On the committee agenda, co-chairs Sens. John Alexander (R-Wake), Chuck Edwards, (R-Henderson), and Rick Gunn (R-Alamance) list unemployment benefit constituent service as the only item.
