Tensions are mounting for New Yorkers trying to claim their unemployment benefits as applications surged amid the coronavirus pandemic. But could a safeguard in the Department of Labor system be causing some of this frustration?

For more than a month, Orange County beautician Nancy Gonzalez says she has been unable to claim her unemployment benefits because of a glitch in the Department of Labor’s system.

“When I went in to certify my weekly benefits and a screen was popping up, stating I could only download a 1099, or Adobe Acrobat Reader,” says Gonzalez. "My daughter who's also a beautician was unemployed also, but she already had a file, so I asked her and she said, 'Mom, that's the wrong, you're getting the wrong screen.'"

After continually receiving this error, Gonzalez called the unemployment hotline, but was unable to get a person on the phone to help her. So, she started contacting her local elected officials and then the governor’s office. She was finally able to get some help, but was told by an agent from the DOL that there was an issue with her claim where it wasn't recognizing that she had a Social Security number associated with her file.

She says the agent that she spoke to told her that he would have to send an email to the IT department to get the issue fixed so that she could claim her weeks and collect her payments. According to what she was told, a claim from more than two decades ago was causing the issue.

Spectrum News reached out to the Department of Labor and a spokesperson from the agency said it seems that “the data from her old claim did not match with the data on her new claim. To protect the claimant from fraud, in these instances the department conducts a variety of crossmatches against various governmental sources to help ensure and protect people's identity. If there are mismatches, steps are taken to verify identity and resolve the mismatch.”

Either way Gonzalez believes that the DOL needs to do something to help people like her resolve these issues.

“I think the Department of Labor in my opinion needs to have a task force of special people who can troubleshoot these problems, because at this point. Let's face it, we're in the middle of this pandemic like we've all lost our jobs weeks and weeks and weeks ago," said Gonzalez.

Gonzalez is finally receiving her payments and her advice to people who are still pending, getting error messages, or unable to file a claim with unemployment is to contact their local elected officials for help.