Judy Foote says despite repeated calls for the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development to take whatever steps are necessary to clear up the backlog in dealing with Employment Insurance inquiries, people are still having to wait too long before receiving a response.
The MP for Random-Burin-St. George`s said that her offices are still getting complaints of long wait times despite assurances from Minister Diane Finley that additional staff have been hired to respond to the overwhelming number of people who have had to apply for EI as a result of job losses.
The minister said in some cases forms are being retuened due to missing information. Mrs. Foote said that circumstance can lengthen what is suppose to be a maximum wait time of 28 days by several more weeks.
The MP asked why employees at EI offices can't telephone the individuals in those cases for the missing infomration instead of further delaying the application by sending the form back.
"Being proactive in such cases can lessen the wait time and ensure people have income as quickly as possible," said Mrs. Foote.
"It appears that instead of helping those who lose their jobs through no fault of their own, they are victimized twice, first by the turndown in the economy and secondly by a system meant to help them."
"The irony in all of this," she said, "is that it isn't the government who is putting up the additional resources to respond to the need, the money to hire additional staff actually comes from the Employment Insurance Program itself."
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