Outdated Computer System Slows Unemployment Benefits

(Columbia, SC) – An outdated computer system is delaying the payment of benefits to a number of South Carolina’s unemployed.

Recently the federal government extended unemployment benefits by an additional 20 weeks.

However the state Employment Security Commission’s 23-year-old computer system isn’t set up to allow payments to the jobless beyond 79 weeks.

Allen Larson, ESC Deputy Executive Director of Unemployment Insurance, says “the software has to be developed to handle” the problem, because it doesn’t exist.

“These systems were not designed for these federal extensions and so what we’re having to do is go in and actually write new code to pay these new extensions,” said Larson.

He says the commission is working overtime to fix the problem and that it’s not a viable option to seek outside help to update the software.

“Because of the complexity of this software and the system, the learning curve would probably take so much longer than actually just having our people work overtime and try to get it done.”

Larson says roughly 12,000 people in the state are affected by the problem.

ESC hopes to have the computer system updated and paying the latest round of extended benefits within the next week or two.

“We’re in the process of identifying all the people who are potentially eligible (for the new benefits). By law we’ve got to send them notices and then if they meet the eligibility requirements, you know, if they haven’t gone back to work, if they’re able and available and all those eligibility issues, then we would begin paying them,” said Larson.

South Carolina is currently involved in a consortium of states, including North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, that is studying the feasibility of designing and implementing a new system.

The states would share the new software and tweak it for their own needs.

The feasibility study is expected to take 12 to 18 months and is being funded by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Larson says if the consortium moves forward with the project, additional funding from the labor department would be needed to secure a contractor to create the software.

However, there’s no timetable for when a new system could be in place.

South Carolina currently has the fifth highest unemployment rate in the nation at 12.1%.