Top Stories

People struggling during pandemic turning to social media for help

The COVID-19 pandemic has closed businesses and eliminated jobs around the country, affecting people’s livelihoods in terms of how much money they have to pay bills or buy food.

"There's people really going through it, panicking and scared of how they're going to pay their bills,” Shakya Carpenter said.

Have questions about the spread of the coronavirus? We have an entire section dedicated to coverage of the outbreak. CLICK HERE for more.

Carpenter is an independent contractor. She goes to different bars and beer distributors to promote drinks.

She's been out of work now for about two months because of COVID-19. Carpenter said she had no choice but to file for pandemic unemployment assistance back in March.

"Everything went fine until glitches. Glitch after glitch after glitch,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter says after weeks of calling and never getting through to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor, she started searching on social media and found the Facebook group called PUA Pennsylvania.

"This is the only place where I was able to get any answers, like any real information on what I should do," Carpenter said. "The only knowledge I had to contact them is through email and wait for a call.”

"We respond to posts to help people solve their problems,” Hayley Michele said.

Michele is one of the Facebook group's administrators. There are 7,000 members looking for pandemic unemployment assistance in Pennsylvania.

Channel 11’s Ryan Houston joined the group.

He said that people are posting questions about how to fill out the application, what to do if they haven’t received a check yet and what to do if their request has been denied.

Group members posted the PUA handbook. They also said the social media group is a place to connect with people who are going through the same thing, waiting weeks to hear back from state officials.