HARTFORD, Conn. — The State’s "Hero Pay" program which was created as a thank you to Connecticut’s essential workers has become a headache for some applicants who have still yet to receive their pay.
Denise Wohlgemuth is a cashier at Stop and Shop a job she’s done since the start of the pandemic. She applied for the hero pay but hasn’t received any money.
After more than 150,000 payments were sent to Connecticut essential workers and she hadn’t received anything she decided to try and figure out why.
Wohlgemuth said she called for weeks without getting a hold of anyone.
“I kept trying to call and call and call I was able to get through like a week ago,” said Wohlgemuth.
She was told that there was an error on her application due to a yes or no question. Wohlgemuth said she asked the employee on the phone how she could make it right and was told she couldn’t she had until last October, the deadline for applications for the hero pay program.
The Office of the State Comptroller told FOX61 that Public Consulting Group, a third-party vendor, was the one accepting and processing applications and that a reconsideration period had ended in March.
Wohlgemuth said she was never told that her application had been thrown out due to the error.
“I assumed OK, everything must be good because I didn't hear anything," she said.
State Comptroller Sean Scanlon told FOX61 in a studio interview Wednesday morning the department is doing the best it can to send out those payments.
"These are our frontline heroes. I want to do everything I can to help them, but this has been a complicated process but we are doing the best we can," Scanlon said.
He added in a statement later Wednesday, "My office has been working diligently to administer this program—the first of its kind—and we are proud to have awarded more than 157,000 essential workers with payments."
Scanlon took office in January, and his office and Public Consulting Group assisted thousands of applicants during this process, his office said.
Most of the payments went out in February and March. The 5,119 remaining payments will be sent out over the next three days, Scanlon's office said.
Final payments are expected to be sent out before the end of the week.
If you or someone you know has questions regarding their Hero Pay application status you’re asked to call Public Consulting Group at 1-833-660-2503.
Jake Garcia is a multimedia journalist for FOX61 News. He can be reached at jgarcia@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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