By the tens of thousands, the unemployed of Maryland are having claims denied, blocking their funds because of an estimated ‘return to work’ date their employer input at the start of this pandemic has now passed. Under normal circumstances, return to work dates make sense for those in Temporary Lay-off. These are obviously not normal circumstances. 

Employees can’t fix this without spending hours, days, dialing hundreds or thousands of times trying to get put on a four hour hold on the phone. This is clogging up an already overloaded system for people who desperately NEED to talk to a claim representative. 

Employers can’t fix this online as they normally would because the claims on their employer portal drop out of view after 35 days—that, too, has passed. The Bulk Claim email inbox goes weeks unread. Your system isn’t working as-is. 

So we’re begging. Waive these dates in the system and stop allowing them to block benefits. 

Lives are at stake.