Tony Paris is the lead attorney at the Detroit-based Maurice and Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice. The nonprofit law office works with people on unemployment who are experiencing issues with the system.

Paris testified about what he and his clients had experienced as they worked with Michigan's unemployment system, with Paris saying the issues drawing attention now long pre-date COVID-19.

“Of course then when a pandemic happens, you take this broken system and you add an unprecedented amount of filers with an unprecedented amount of folks that were normally not eligible - you heard some of the testimony in there regarding pandemic unemployment for self-employed people - that is unprecedented," said Paris. "So, you have all those folks flooding a broken system. It was a recipe for disaster. And that disaster continues every day.”

Paris claimed the computer system for the Unemployment Insurance Agency filers was programmed to make things more difficult for Michiganders who needed benefits and to make it easier for those who didn't deserve them. Paris said one of the most important changes the UIA could make immediately would be to make its site more easy for filers to understand and navigate. … see full story and CBS News Channel 3