Meet a jobless Oklahoman caught in the middle of a battle over unemployment benefits: 'The panic level is very high.'

• Across the US, 26 states have opted out of federal unemployment benefits early.
• That choice has left millions of workers with no benefits, and many fighting back with lawsuits.
• Oklahoma is one of those states, and the jobless worker Michella Stewart told Insider of her experience.

Michella Stewart has been unemployed since March 2020, thanks to the harsh realities of being a working mom of five during a global pandemic.

For more than a year, she got by on the expanded federal benefits meant to help more workers - and provide them relief longer - as the pandemic shuttered businesses.

But then in June, Oklahoma cut off expanded benefits, with Gov. Kevin Stitt arguing that it would drive people back to work. Insider's Ben Winck and Andy Kiersz reported that it hasn't quite panned out that way in terms of more jobs, but it has thrown millions off unemployment. In fact, the states that cut it early took a bigger economic hit than the ones that didn't.

The 39-year-old Stewart is now the moderator of a Facebook group for thousands of jobless Oklahomans who are suing the state to reinstate benefits. Others are caught in legal limbo. In Oklahoma, a court ruled at first to reinstate those benefits, but that was later reversed.

Here is Stewart's story in her own words, edited for brevity.

They offered an extra $600 a week at first.

Then they lowered it to $300, and then they got rid of it, and then they put $300 back.

I was on traditional unemployment for a year. I could not find work. So many places had closed down. I did not have the ability to work overnights. I had to make the money I was making before, because I have five children at home.

I don't think people understand that those on unemployment are not making extra. They hear that word and they think it's more, but it's not. This is just on top of the standard benefits, which are a small portion of what you were making before.

We were fortunate that about the time unemployment ended early, the Child Tax Credit became available.

That was very beneficial. I had no concerns as far as being able to take care of my children, or keeping my home because I have an amazing landlord who would work with me.

Now, my family is okay. Part of the reason for this is that I grew up in extreme poverty. If I had to, I could make it work on a couple hundred dollars a month.

I have prepared. I didn't just take that money and go play. I didn't go to the casino. When I pay my electric bill, I pay $300. That way I know I'm paying for what I've used and I've got a cushion there.

We were not going to let this happen without fighting it.

I should have had until September to find a job. I don't think that our leaders took into account just how hard it is to find employment when you have no resources.

As soon as they said they were ending benefits, the admins of the Facebook group that I'm a part of immediately started looking for an attorney.

We ended up finding one after weeks and weeks of searching. We sued in the Supreme court. We sued Governor Stitt and the OESC and Shelley Zumwalt.

Editor's note: A District Court judge granted a preliminary injunction, compelling the state to temporarily restart benefits. However, as The Oklahoman reports, the state's Supreme Court is now allowing the state to argue its case further, and placed a stay on that preliminary injunction - meaning benefits won't actually restart yet.

Everyone was posting: 'I don't know what to do now.'

It absolutely tore me up inside because I have worked with these people, all of them, so closely for the last year and a half, I feel responsible for them in a way these are, these are my children too.

Reading all of these people's stories and seeing them despair after all of this had happened to them, I realized that there is no time like the present. We have to do this now, and we have to do it right.

We have not lost the case. This is going to be heard in the Supreme Court. It's a pretty rare thing for a Supreme court to overturn another judge's ruling.

I have faith that this will turn out the way that we hope it will, but nobody is going to know anything for a long time. I mean, these Supreme Court cases can take six months. They can take a year. They can take as long as they need to take, and the time is ticking away.

These benefits, they end September 6th. The panic level is very high.

What they did was create a new 'welfare queen' situation.

One of my goals is to stop this behavior that is happening right now, because when those benefits were ended - not just in Oklahoma, but in other states - what these leaders told people was: These people on unemployment are lazy. They don't want to work, and we're going to cut off their benefits. So they will work, because they're hurting our states.

Immediately, that created a climate of hostility. The people on unemployment, they felt attacked. They felt betrayed and they lashed out. The people that have been working through this pandemic - maybe they were on unemployment for a short amount of time, and then they got a job - they felt attacked because, you know, my taxpayer dollars are going to support laziness. But they're not, any of them, seeing the bigger stories here.

All of us are people. We all have our lives. We all have our stories. Everybody has their ups and downs.

The man posting "All of you lazy people need to get up and get a job, I'm tired of supporting you," maybe he owns a company that's about to go bankrupt because he can't find workers. Of course he's upset. Of course he's frustrated.

The person that's saying, "I've been looking for a year-and-a-half and I can't find a job," and they've got people replying, "Well, you know, I see help wanted signs everywhere, go pick one." They're not taking into account that that person has worked with charities and international nonprofits for 25 years up till now, and has a doctorate. They can't go work part-time for a minimum wage.

I would tell President Biden that it's time to act.

Right now there is division, and the presidency before his - and I'm not saying anything good or bad about it - but it was so divided. And one of the promises that Biden made was we are going to stand as one. And I think it's time to live up to that promise.