For more than two weeks now during the government shutdown , Imelda Avila-Thomas has been trying in vain to get approved for unemployment compensation to help cover essentials such as food and mortgage payments for her family while she's on unpaid furlough from her federal government job.

She kept asking questions and was ultimately sent a hyperlink to upload proof-of-income documents, which she did earlier this week. But Avila-Thomas, who works for the Department of Labor in San Antonio, said the system still deems her ineligible for benefits, saying it cannot verify her wages. She wonders whether someone who might help her has also been furloughed.

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