Open Record: A system in chaos

MILWAUKEE - It's the most-received call and email into the FOX6 newsroom: Unemployment issues. Since the pandemic hit more than seven months ago, FOX6 viewers have reached out to us, hoping we can help them get unemployment benefits. The viewers who contact us say there are a number of problems with the system, from having trouble filing an initial claim to not receiving benefits months after that first filing. In this episode of Open Record, FOX6 Investigators Bryan Polcyn and Amanda St. Hilaire dig into Wisconsin's unemployment system to find out why it's leaving so many people behind.

You'll get a refresher course on just how our state's unemployment system works and the issues so many have seen since the pandemic started back in March. Amanda also shares the story of one FOX6 viewer who recorded his interactions with the Department of Workforce Development and explains how attempted fraud on his case is now preventing the RIGHT person from getting the money. You'll also hear what the DWD has to say about the backlog of claims and cases and why the process of getting these taken care of is so complicated.