Missing unemployment money frustrates thousands of Hoosiers

by Kelli Cheatham (kcheatham@wsbt.com)

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Missing unemployment money frustrates thousands of Hoosiers

By WSBT News1

Story Created: Apr 6, 2009 at 4:13 PM EST

Story Updated: Apr 9, 2009 at 1:26 PM EST

ELKHART — Unemployed and out of luck. If you have an Indiana unemployment debit card and tried to withdraw your weekly benefits Monday, you probably had some trouble doing it. The Department of Workforce Development is blaming it on a glitch — saying a computer processing error affected unemployed workers across the state.

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The money they expected to have at 10 a.m. every Monday morning seemed to disappear.

"I'm gonna have to wait," said Anna Torres after checking her debit card several times. "Hopefully they'll get it straight."

A sign on the ATM at the National City Bank in Elkhart said the money wouldn't be available until Tuesday.

"I'm screwed," laughed Allen Burgess after finding out there was no money in his account. "If I don't have it, my creditors can't be paid. My electricity gets shut off if it's late."

Marc Lotter, Indiana Department of Workforce Development director of communications, told WSBT "There is no problem. This is strictly a computer processing glitch. The money has been sent to the accounts, but the computers [that deposit the money into each account] are slow."

Still, unemployed workers say the slow computers gave them the run-around.

"We came down here three times already and called on the phone to try to get it," said Ray McClure.

And the more times they checked the card, the more expensive it became. Those who have unemployment debit cards told WSBT they're allowed to check the balance on them once a day. Any more than that and they're charged $1 per transaction.

"I'll have to wait more for a lot of the necessities I need," said Torres.

But money's tight, times are tough and unemployed workers say they can't afford any "glitch" in the system.

"It takes gas to go out and put in applications and stuff. And there's still not jobs. No jobs," Torres said.

In a news release Monday afternoon, the Department of Workforce Development said it will work to adjust those accounts that were charged additional ATM and service fees.

Lotter also said unemployment payments were deposited into individual debit card accounts just before 3 p.m.

When asked if the slow deposits had anything to do with the Northern Indiana Workforce Board's decision last week to fire the South Bend company operating this region's WorkOne centers and replace it with a Ft. Wayne company, Lotter said it did not.

He said this glitch originated within state offices, and has nothing to do with local companies.

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