Outdated computers delay jobless benefits, spark anger

Kevin McDermott, like many thousands of out-of-work Virginians, was glad to hear the federal government was extending the state's jobless benefits an extra seven weeks.

The extension this month was just in time - McDermott's weekly checks were to about to stop. Then came the bad news, courtesy of an ancient computer system.

His checks stopped anyway because state officials need almost two months to complete new computer programming to distribute the extra seven weeks of coverage.

"It's ridiculous," said McDermott, of Norfolk, who lost his job as a salesman for Bank of America last summer.

Unable to find new work in his field as the recession deepened, he had been getting by on $303 to $328 in weekly unemployment benefits.

State officials said Thursday that there's nothing they can do to speed up the processing of claims because their computer network has, at its core, a 1970s-era mainframe machine.

"We're working desperately... to update to pay the benefits out," said Joyce Fogg, spokeswoman for the Virginia Employment Commission. "We're projecting those payments will be made by June 26."

In the meantime, McDermott said, he has been told he might get a letter from the state that he can show his creditors, promising that his money will be coming later.

"It takes two months to program a computer?" he asked. "What is going on?"

Sam Lupica, the commission's chief operating officer, said the problem has been building for years because until recently there wasn't money to replace the system.

The computer issue is particularly acute, he said, because the active network handles high volumes of complex data. That includes compiling updates on the pay of every worker in the state, calculations of unemployment taxes, collections of money from several sources to pay claims, and the processing of unemployment claims.

The state recently bega n a $45 million, federally funded project to replace the network, Lupica said. But that effort won't be completed for three to four years.

"It's a monumental process," he said.

Meanwhile, Fogg said, the Employment Commission is dealing with the casualties of an enormous economic recession. The volume of inquiries about benefits is larger than Fogg has ever seen in her eight years with the agency.

McDermott said that after he lost his job in July, he was easily able to reach unemployment officials at first. But as the recession began to build, he had trouble getting anything but recorded messages.

"It was virtually impossible to speak to anybody from October forward," he said.

More than 100,000 Virginians are collecting unemployment checks that total about $25 million a week. It's unclear how many of them could be caught in the delay.

Americans who qualify for the benefits are entitled to 39 weeks of pay that is based in part on their income before they lost their jobs.

A federal law approved last year also requires individual states to pay an additional seven weeks if their state unemployment rate is 6 percent or higher for three consecutive months. Virginia met that threshold with the release in late April of March's 7 percent statewide unemployment rate.

Once the computer programming update is completed next month, Fogg said, future claimants needing the extra seven weeks of benefits will still have a small delay.

People who think they're eligible for the extension should wait for the Employment Commission to send them a letter with an application for the extra benefit, she said.

The letters are being sent within days of workers exhausting the first 39 weeks of benefits, she said.

Bill Bartel, (757) 446-2398, bill.bartel@pilotonline.com