Hours spent on hold. Months of delays. Confusing forms offered only in English and Spanish. These were among the dozens of problems District workers reported Wednesday during a hearing on D.C.’s unemployment benefits system.

The city’s Department of Employment Services (DOES) was one of many unemployment offices across the country to be overwhelmed by a deluge of claims during the pandemic. And the D.C. Council’s labor committee spent seven hours hearing from the people behind those claims.

According to DOES, more than 143,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed in D.C. between mid-March and mid-September — more than five times the number filed in all of 2019, per U.S. Department of Labor data. And DOES says more than 48,000 unemployment claims in the District are still awaiting processing.

Taalib-Din Uqdah, a self-employed Ward 4 resident, told the committee it took four months for him to receive partial benefits, and he’s still missing much of the money he believes he’s entitled to. His interactions with DOES staff have only deepened his disillusionment, he said.

“I can’t tell you the number of times I heard the words ‘escalation,’ ‘subject matter expert,’ ‘7-21 days,’ ‘supervisor,’ ‘validation to be attached to the file,’ and ‘PUA examiner,’ all in the same sentence,” Uqdah said, later adding, “I’m in my late 60s. I don’t have time for this nonsense.”

Others reported not being able to file claims on their mobile phones, a problem especially felt by workers who don’t have personal computers. Ethiopian workers said through an interpreter that they weren’t able to communicate with agency staff or fill out forms because help was not provided in Amharic. Many described excruciating wait times when trying to contact the agency by phone, only to get disconnected.

Committee chair Elissa Silverman (I-At Large) acknowledged that the pandemic placed an enormous burden on the agency, as it did for many state offices.

Unemployment offices across the country also had to reconfigure their technology to process payments for workers who did not qualify for benefits before passage of the federal CARES Act in March. Updating the District’s antiquated system to accommodate newly eligible gig workers and self-employed people — many of whom earn income in multiple states or have other complex circumstances — delayed processing of thousands of claims.

But five District legal services providers testified that many problems plaguing DOES today are identical to those the agency faced roughly a decade ago, when the office saw a wave of new unemployment claims stemming from the 2008 recession.

“Year after year, unemployment stakeholders have testified about the same handful of systemic failures at DOES,” said joint testimony from D.C. Legal Aid, Whitman-Walker Legal Services, and others. “After each new crisis, the agency struggles to capitalize on lessons learned and make improvements to address underlying problems.”

DOES Director Dr. Unique Morris-Hughes had been scheduled to appear as a government witness during Wednesday’s hearing, but canceled due to “extenuating circumstances,” an agency spokesperson tells DCist/WAMU. Asked for more information, the spokesperson referred to identical wording in a press release. Morris-Hughes is now expected to testify Sept. 30.

Silverman has not introduced legislation aimed at improving the city’s unemployment benefits process, but she requested funds to modernize the system in the city’s 2021 budget.

With millions across the U.S. still unemployed and Congress stalled on another round of pandemic relief, the White House issued an executive order in August extending unemployment benefits for workers in states approved for federal funding. The District got the green light for funds last week. DOES has said that the first payments for those claims will be paid starting in October.

The D.C. Council’s labor committee continues to solicit comments and official testimony on the District’s unemployment system by email and an online survey. The committee also plans to hold monthly roundtables on unemployment assistance in October, November, and December, with dates to be announced.