WATERVILLE, Maine (AP) - A state Department of Labor memo describes the rollout of a new unemployment filing system as a “failure” that’s been costly to taxpayers and recipients.
The Morning Sentinel newspaper reported that it obtained an internal memo marked “confidential” that was written by a Department of Labor employee but wasn’t made public.
The memo writer described “thousands of dollars” in temporary staffing and overtime because the new software was rushed out in December.
“Someone needs to account for the failure,” the memo said.
It also said poor planning and decisions “look a lot like cover-ups.”
Recipients of benefits have complained of being locked out the computer system and of delayed payments.
“I feel like they fed us out to the wolves,” said Faith Young, of Fairfield, who said she was locked out of her ReEmployeME account, forcing her to spend hours on the phone and to travel to a Bangor career center in a fruitless search for answers.
She said she was almost evicted from her apartment because she hasn’t been getting her checks.
“It’s a horrible system, horrid,” she said.
The memo reported that hundreds of messages left on a tech support line were not returned and documents of logging complaints were destroyed.
The Maine Department of Labor did not respond to multiple requests for an interview with John Feeney, the director of the Bureau of Unemployment Compensation, the newspaper reported.
State Sen. Shenna Bellows, D-Manchester, said the state should investigate “how many hundreds of Mainers were improperly denied benefits they were entitled to,” have those benefits restored and ensure something like this never happens again.
Those responsible should be held accountable, Bellows said, and anyone found to be covering up the problem “should lose their jobs.”
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Information from: Morning Sentinel, http://www.onlinesentinel.com/
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