Derek Wood, a guitarist and singer, had just quit his job to pursue a lifelong goal when the pandemic hit. A battle for jobless benefits threatens his dream.
Derek Wood was about to achieve a lifelong dream. Unemployment benefits may prove to be his foil. Wood,49, a guitar player and songwriter from the Little Rock, Ark., area, who sings with a soulful country-blues croon, quit his job in December to pursue music full-time. The time seemed right. His band, The Going Jessies, was playing more at popular local joints and doing more multi-day road tours. The three-piece group — which includes Wood’s partner, Angela Paradis — released its first full album in 2019. That dream is slipping away. In fact, chasing it triggered a long battle to collect jobless benefits, records show. Wood isn’t any closer to securing the funds — despite what appears to be a strong case in his favor, unemployment experts said, and after a rabbit hole of appeals. Meanwhile, Paradis, who plays bass and sings backup vocals, is also unemployed. Years of savings is gone, diverted to everyday living costs. If unemployment funds don’t arrive to replenish savings, a music career will likely no longer be feasible. “It’s cost me a year,” Wood said of the ordeal. “And we’re not 25 [anymore].” To be sure, the couple’s story isn’t on par with tragedies that have played out en masse since the pandemic upended the economy — a reality the duo are quick to point out. Families have taken on huge debt loads, gone hungry and been evicted during a raging health crisis. Millions have fallen into poverty. But their story offers another perspective on the human toll of the unemployment crisis and the intangible cost of gaps in the country’s social safety net. A labyrinthine system Lengthy waits to receive jobless benefits have become commonplace since the spring. The labyrinthine structure of America’s unemployment system is partly to blame. It’s a morass of administrative hurdles that can slow aid to needy people at many different junctures — which, for some like Wood, has amounted to a nightmare. Roughly 137,000 workers — around 1 in 5 applicants — who received their first payment of benefits in November had waited 70 days for the money, according to Labor Department data. Before the pandemic, less than 1% waited that long. Workers can appeal a state’s decision, as may occur if they’re denied aid. (Bosses may also appeal if they feel a worker isn’t entitled to benefits.
