The Computer That Delayed Unemployment Benefits For Thousands

State officials blame the problem on a glitch in software intended to prevent fraud and mistaken payments.

Maine Department of Labor officials say a computer glitch has delayed unemployment benefit payments to thousands of recipients.

Officials blame software intended to prevent fraud and mistaken payments for the problem, which Department spokesman Adam Fisher says has affected at least 4,600 people whose claims did not process properly.

Others who tried to file claims over the Internet or through an automated phone system got error messages and may have just given up, he says.

Fisher says the problem affected only those who filed weekly unemployment claims on Sunday or Monday morning and are collecting benefits under the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier 1 or Tier 2 extensions.

He says the software issue has been fixed, and payments are being reprocessed today, but the benefits will not be deposited until Friday, at the earliest.

The problem did not affect people filing through the regular state unemployment program, on Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier 3, or on the Extended Benefits program, Fisher says.

Source: http://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3478/ItemId/13779/Default.aspx

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