Monroe Review

House Rep. Bronna Kahle (R-Adrian) is urging the state's unemployment agency to help families who are unable to work, according to the Michigan House Republicans website.

Kahle said the Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) needs to come through to help Michiganders statewide.

“Workers were told they were not allowed to work to put food on the table and pay their bills due to government’s response to COVID-19,” Kahle said, according to Michigan House Republicans. “The UIA has been unable to help tens of thousands of laid-off workers receive the unemployment benefits they deserve.”

Kahle said many families statewide had been harmed by the failures of the online filing system.

"Families in Lenawee County and across the state have been hurt by UIA’s failures to deliver the benefits laid-off workers need and deserve,” Kahle said on her party's website. “Countless workers have been waiting for weeks and weeks for the department to respond to their questions and process their claims. I am listening to the concerns of parents desperate to provide for their families, and I am standing with them to call for change.”

Earlier in June, the state started paying unemployment benefits again after freezing payments for more than 340,000 while investigating potential fraud claims, The Detroit Free Press reported.

“It's extremely upsetting that the actions of these fraudsters have delayed payments meant for our working families,” Steve Gray, director of the Unemployment Insurance Agency, said in a statement, according to The Detroit Free Press. “While we continue to work with our state and federal partners to stop this unlawful activity, our focus remains on doing everything we can to quickly validate authentic claims and get our workers the emergency financial assistance they need."

The agency said the payments would be made within days to about 140,000 of those whose payments were frozen. The remaining 200,000 still need to be verified, but a spokesman said they don't know how long it will take to verify the remaining individuals and would take months under normal circumstances.