By Perly Viasmensky
Las Vegas Tribune
The lack of response from the Department of Employment, Rehabilitation and Training (DERT) is totally incomprehensible. They don’t even have a webpage or an email address for people to contact them. They only list a telephone number that no one answers.
They try to remind Nevadans to remain vigilant about identity theft, because DERT has discovered numerous fraudulent schemes related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When self-employed people first filed for their PUA unemployment benefits they had to submit all forms of identifications, as well as their 1099 form with their application.
After more than five months of waiting, now all of a sudden DERT is telling those people that they need a copy of their 1099, a copy of front and back of their social security card, a copy of their Nevada ID card (front and back) and also copies of utility bills.
The State of Nevada neglected to pay all of those people in a timely manner with the suggestion of fear of fraud as a reason. Now the people of the State of Nevada are afraid of fraud committed by unknown people upon them.
Whatever happened to the documentation sent at the beginning of the initial process five months ago, that now all of a sudden, is being requested again, with even more proof of identity required while making threats of disqualifying the applicant?
After months of waiting, many Nevadans have been forced to endure the humiliation of standing in line at many charities, such as churches and other food banks, to get food to feed their families; it is totally disgusting.
It is very noble of those organizations to care for their fellow Nevadans, but unfortunately, many of the items they have received have an expiration date of two months prior. But when you are hungry or need to feed a family, you need to take a chance. If you don’t die of COVID-19, you may die of food poisoning.
If the Department of Employment, Rehabilitation and Training (DERT) is concerned about fraud, so are the people of the State of Nevada.
Requesting document information after five months of the initial application, when all documentation was submitted with the initial application, makes us wonder who is behind the computer lines at the Call Centers that are not manned by state employees.
If the State of Nevada needs additional information from applicants, it needs to have a way of a face-to-face contact instead of with an incognito person. Otherwise, it would be better for Governor Steve Sisolak to go public and say “Small Businesses are no longer needed; let all of them be evicted and let them be added to the homeless population of the city; after all, they are very well off — the Welfare Department will support all of them for the rest of their lives.
Remember, Sisolak has listed marijuana stores as ESSENTIAL BUSINESSES, yet does not have the full resources of the State of Nevada handling the fiasco of massively backed-up claims of unemployment of Nevada residents, due to his forced shutdowns, which ranks Nevada near the top of unemployed in the nation, in a never-never zone of unfilled claims.
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