LONDON, ONT. -- A father of young twin boys, Danny King says he’s been trying to call the Employment Insurance line for weeks now with no luck.
“I’ve called 669 calls in the last five days,” says King. “Four times I have actually got through to the automated service and then once I give my personal identification info and it then says call volume is so high it can’t take my call and then it hangs up on me at that point.”
King initially applied online for support last month, having to leave work to care for his kids. He says a week later he was also affected by layoffs at his workplace.
“Because I’m in a situation called under review, it won’t allow me any information. Online it says I have to speak to a live person, and when I call the machine tells me to go online. I’m stuck in the middle.”
King has reached out to his local MP David Mackenzie, who serves Oxford. Mackenzie told CTV News that his office has been inundated with the same type of calls each and every day.
“I think it’s an overwhelming situation and the shame of it is that people do need the money and do need the service and they can’t get through and they become very frustrated.”
Liberal MP for London North Centre Peter Fragiskatos says the system works, it’s just that there is a higher volume of applicants than ever before.
“There have been 45,000 applications prior to COVID-19 for EI,” says Fragiskatos. “This week alone there have been 530,000 come into the government and nine million applications have been processed so far.”
He adds, anyone who’s experiencing issues can contact their local MP.
Meanwhile King, who has done all those steps already, hopes someone can help him. He says, other than continuing to call each day, all he can do is try to stay positive.
“I’m remembering it could be worse. I’m here to talk about it and I’m healthy to talk about it so yeah it could be worse I guess for sure.”
