(LEX 18) — LEX 18 receives hundreds of emails daily from viewers asking us to help them. They're desperate because they remain in unemployment limbo. Mandy Faulconer is one of them.
"It's rough. The struggle is real for a lot of us," said Faulconer, who is a single mother of two boys, ages 11 and 13.
The hardest part for Faulconer?
"Telling them, no, no we can't go to McDonald's, no we can't get pizza I got to figure out how to pay my bills," Faulconer said.
Last spring, Faulconer was laid-off from her job as a property manager. She says she received benefits until October and has been in limbo ever since.
"It feels like an endless process. I'm calling, I'm trying to email, I'm trying to send in messages from the website, it's the same information over and over again," said Faulconer.
Faulconer says the system is set up to fail. In January, Gov. Andy Beshear said the state was receiving bids for a new unemployment system. We asked him about the progress and today he said a bid is supposed to be awarded sometime this month.
Mandy Faulconer hopes it's sooner rather than later because she says she's facing eviction at the end of the month.
"I'm not sure I can wait months. I'm on a day-by-day basis right now," said Faulconer.
We also followed-up with Gov. Beshear about unemployment phone appointments that many tell us aren't happening. Some say they waited weeks to talk to a "real" person and don't receive a call. We asked the governor why during his press conference on Monday.
"That shouldn't be happening, if somebody has a phone appointment scheduled, they should get it and we will address that," said Gov. Beshear.
