"There has been an error on your unemployment claim..".

It's been exactly 26 days since my layoff. But, I can't say that I've been bored, exactly. I have spent tons of time looking for work, 2.5 hours in an interview, and even spent half of one day working for my former employer. But, the most excitement I have had has been trying to file for unemployment benefits.

First, one has to file the initial claim on the assigned day, and you'd better hope that your computer is up and running, because your day is THE day that you can file. For me, that was the Sunday after I was laid off. Now, why they would assign a Sunday is a little beyond me, but for certain, it meant that I could NOT make a mistake. Who would I call if my system froze or I made a typo? Well, the form was easy enough initially. However, they do ask you lots of questions about any extra money you have coming in, like vacation pay from your last employer, or if you received severance. In my case, this was fairly straightforward. I did have a couple of vacation days, but no severance, (according to my former boss, if they had had money to give us severance, they would have kept us working). So, the form appears to be easy enough to follow, and one would think in turn, easy enough to process.

Well, it's been a few weeks now, and I'm well aware that unemployment is behind in processing claims. Seems that there are so many claims, they are approximately 1-2 months behind. When I first heard this, all I could think of was "instead of paying everyone unemployment benefits, why don't they put a few of us to work processing some of the claims?" but, we're talking about a government program, so I guess I was just being silly! Anyway, I digress. I received a call today, weeks after my initial filing, that there is a problem with my claim. Seems they have my last name as my first in their database, and they can't figure out how to fix it. So, none of the weeks that I have filed have been processed because what I am filing and what they have on record do not match.

Why it took over 24 days to figure this out is a little beyond me, but I guess I should be grateful that someone finally did catch it. Now I have to hope that it can be fixed, and that I have not just been delayed an additional 24 days until I actually see a check. I am thankful that the program exists, but it won't do me, or anyone else that needs the benefit, any good if they cannot fix a simple database/computer error. It makes me wonder how many errors are made and how many people are waiting for checks that are not going to come because of a computer error. I wonder how many people are sitting home thinking "at least I can get a check coming in until I find a job", only to find out after a couple of weeks that said check is NOT on its way.