LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The burden of unemployment continues to weigh on the Commonwealth of Kentucky and on the tens of thousands who appear to be eligible for help but still aren't getting it.
“I probably got about, I don’t know, ten or fifteen bucks," Tom Walls, 55, said. “I just can’t take it too much longer."
Walls told FOCUS that he lost his job early on in the pandemic. He got back to work for a few months, but then got laid off again in November.
Sunday he plans to request payment on his claim.
“This will be the fourth time I think, and it accepts my claim and says it’s being processed,” Walls said. “But I haven’t seen no letters, no contact, no checks, no anything.”
Walls is like many of the tens of thousands in Kentucky still waiting for help. He hasn’t been able to speak to a specialist to straighten out his claim.
On the verge of having zero dollars, Walls said his wife also has a cancerous brain tumor.
It’s no wonder he is dejected.
“Feel kind of like a loser, even though I’m not.” Walls lamented. “I feel less of a man not being able to support my wife. I mean I’ve pulled every penny I had out of everywhere just to keep going.”
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