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The state announced drastic steps Wednesday to cut through the bureaucratic snarls that are keeping people from their unemployment checks.
In northeast Indiana, the state is more than doubling the number of representatives in WorkOne offices with authority to go into the computer system and cancel holds placed on unemployment payments because of a confusing computer filing system.
In addition, the state is opening an office in Fort Wayne, where 50 additional representatives will work through the backlog of such holds across the northern half of Indiana.
Area unemployment offices have been overwhelmed in recent months with clients wanting to know the status of their unemployment money.
A representative in the Adams County WorkOne office in Decatur said two representatives there were working with 100 to 150 people a day trying to clear up problems.
“They have been inundated,” said Kathleen Randolph, president and CEO of Partners for Workforce Solutions, the contractor that runs WorkOne Northeast, which oversees unemployment offices in northeast Indiana.
Marc Lotter, a spokesman for the Department of Workforce Development, said WorkOne offices have been busy but not overwhelmed.
When Hoosiers lose jobs, they can file for unemployment on a computer-based system. But the number of claims statewide has doubled in the past year, Randolph said, and that system isn’t working smoothly.
“The way the questions are phrased in the uplink system is very confusing to our customers,” Randolph said.
For example, questions about a worker’s health are vaguely worded and cause delays as state workers try to determine whether a person is able to do a job, Parker said.
A state call center has been swamped with calls from Hoosiers wanting to know about their checks, so WorkOne centers started allowing clients to again file paper claims for unemployment.
Randolph said that filing a paper claim could cause a delay of weeks while state employees process it.
Lotter denied there were major problems with questions in the Uplink system.
Adding staff authorized to clear holds automatically placed on unemployment payments should end the need to file paper claims, Randolph said.
The 26 additional staff for northeast Indiana WorkOne centers is in training this week and could work as soon as next week, Randolph said.
She said the state also is working to fix problems with the questions its Uplink service asks applicants.
Lotter said Indiana is paying 93 percent of eligible unemployment claims within 21 days of when they’re filed, well within federal guidelines.
