Congress extended unemployment assistance to gig workers. But they're struggling to access it

Whereas full time workers' earnings are filed with the state by their employers, Wilkes said that as a self-employed worker, it was difficult to quantify and explain in a small form field just how much of her work had been lost.

"There's no place to communicate: This is the money I would have earned," Wilkes said, adding that the form still seemed geared toward W2 workers, not freelancers. The California form she filled out, for example, does not ask whether the applicant is self-employed until near the end of the form, after it requests information on previous employers and wages.

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Theoretically, self-employed workers could have more access to coronavirus-related financial assistance than other full-time workers who are laid off or furloughed from their jobs. Many are applying for both unemployment benefits and Economic Injury Disaster or Payment Protection Program loans from the Small Business Administration.

But accessing those benefits has also proven difficult.

Jane Richards, a sole-proprietor public relations consultant in California, sought to apply for SBA aid after losing about 30% of her business amid the pandemic and fearing she'd soon lose more.

But she was ineligible to apply at her primary bank, which is only accepting applications from people with business accounts or credit cards, something she hasn't needed as a freelancer.

"I don't have a payroll, so I haven't had to think about (having a business account)," Richards said. "It's just me. But it seems like I'm the exact type of person that this was made to help. I've just, at this point, given up. I don't think I'm going to be able to get it."