MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Some Alabama residents spent the holiday weekend struggling to claim their weekly unemployment benefits.
The Alabama Department of Labor tells local news outlets that about 53,000 people were blocked from filing the required weekly report telling state government that they still don’t have a job. Only then is another week’s worth of unemployment benefits paid.
The department said Monday that it had resolved the problems as the number of confirmed COVID-19 infections rose by 154 to more than 14,500. The number of confirmed deaths rose by nine to 560.
As of May 19, Alabama had disbursed more that $1 billion in unemployment benefits to a little more than 250,000 people.