A single mom of a 7-year-old daughter went from furloughed to jobless last week amid the spread of the coronavirus.
“Because of the pandemic they furloughed pretty much all of us and kept 10 people," Danielle Biggers told News 6. ”It’s horrible, it’s horrible.”
Biggers worked as a vacation sales representative for Holiday Inn Club Vacations for 10 years but she had taken time away from the company and had just started back in 2017.
Biggers contacted News 6 after a Department of Employment Opportunity staffer found her account was “locked” because her identity had been breached in 2015.
“I never applied for unemployment in 2015,” a frustrated Biggers said. "Now, I’m suffering and I have no one to help me for my suffering.”
The company’s Chief Operating Officer John Staten, sent an email to employees last week that reported the resort network had launched a “gradual reopening” but to reach pre-pandemic levels “could take quite some time.”
That led to the words Biggers and her co-workers had long anticipated: termination.
Staten writing in part, “We have identified your position as one that will be eliminated effective May 31, 2020.”
Biggers told News 6 she was told the proposed severance would leave her with a check for $1,200.
Biggers is concerned for her young daughter Bronze, unsure where she will get financial help.
Her lender Mr. Cooper is allowing her to defer home mortgage payments but the company is asking for a balloon payment.
“I have to pay it all at one time,” Biggers said. “Where am I going to get that money?”
State Senator Linda Stewart said lenders are asking the impossible from families who have been struggling.
“The only conscientious thing to do is take three months if that’s how much longer it is, and stick it at the end of her mortgage.”
If you want to help Danielle and her daughter or you have an unemployment issue email: makeendsmeet@wkmg.com.