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Unemployment checks idling; Madison County mother struggling to get by

Posted at 2:19 PM, May 06, 2020
and last updated 2020-05-07 09:05:41-04

RICHMOND, Ky. (LEX 18) — There is a silver lining for Ashleigh Aarons. Once the stay at home order is lifted, her job at Toyota South in Richmond will be waiting for her. But until then, the help she’s been promised hasn’t exactly been traveling in the passing lane.

“I actually received two Kentucky unemployment debit cards, but both of them to this day, when I go to check the balance on them, there is no balance on there,” she explained.

Aarons also said she has received only one unemployment check since filing for that insurance on March 24, and was then instructed to re-file if she wanted to receive more assistance. She and her three children are getting by with food stamps and a little help from her friends.

“If I do need help, I have a supportive family,” she said.

Ashleigh knows that can realistically last for only so much longer, and she doesn’t want to have to ask family for help doing what she was able to do just fine on her own until coronavirus came around. The frustration is mounting, even though she knows the state’s system has been inundated over the last two months.

“I know everyone is just trying to do their job, but I feel like I’ve contacted so many people over the phone, e-mail, Facebook and still can’t come up with any answers. It’s a big question mark in the air floating around,” she said.

She said her kids are being fed, but everything else she needs to take care of is becoming more and more difficult.

“Can’t pay bills with nothing, so it’s hard,” she said.

And as for that stimulus money from the federal government?

“It says it’s still waiting to be deposited,” she said of the IRS website’s coronavirus information page.

She’s waiting like many others. Unfortunately this virus won’t stop claiming lives, and destroying livelihoods.