JACKSONVILLE, Fla — A Jacksonville man is on the verge of losing everything after losing multiple family members while battling Florida’s unemployment system.
“The emotional stress has been tremendous,” Dale Barashes said. “The financial stress has been tremendous.”
These last few months have been some of the most trying in Barashes’ life.
Barashes didn’t only lose his job during the pandemic, but he lost his family.
“On July 17 at 9:21 my dad took his last breath,” Barashes said.
At 85 years old, Barashes father passed due to leukemia.
Barashes says he can't afford to fulfill his father's wish of being laid to rest in Pennsylvania.
Three weeks later, Barashes' brother fell ill and also passed away.
“The passing of my father is obviously very hard on me,” Barashes said. “The passing of my brother has made it 10 times worse.”
On top of it all, his mother’s dementia is rapidly progressing.
Barashes isn’t only struggling to pay his own bills, but pay for the many bills presented by his father and brother’s passing. The struggle is made worse because he has yet to receive any of his state payments since being furloughed in May, and officially laid off in August.
“My fight with the unemployment system has been ridiculous,” Barashes said. “Apparently they’re saying I received an overpayment in 2012 or 2013,” Barashes said.
Barashes said he never received a notification of the overpayment after all of these years. Now he is unable to receive payments until the issue is fixed.
Countless attempts have been made by Barashes to have this issue resolved. After paying as many bills as possible, he has emptied his savings and depleted his 401K. Now he’s out of options.
“They don’t care, they just simply don’t care,” Barashes said. “They do not look at you as a human being, they look at you as a number.”
As Barashes waits, he is at risk of losing everything as his bills are skyrocketing and his credit is plummeting, all while grieving.
“Something needs to change,” Barashes said.