The Maine Department of Labor said on Thursday that a computer system problem has delayed the issuing of unemployment benefits to about 2,200 Maine workers this week.

The problem halted processing of unemployment checks, direct deposits, and other notifications on Tuesday and Wednesday.

People who filed unemployment claims over the weekend or during the day Monday should have received payments as usual. Those who filed Monday night or later have had benefits delayed, the Department of Labor said.

“The Office of Information Technology has been working with our unemployment system staff around the clock since the problem was first discovered early Wednesday morning,” said Commissioner of Labor Jeanne Paquette.

“This time of year is when the numbers of people filing for unemployment peaks, so this delay is making a challenging situation even more difficult for many people. Our goal is to get this situation fixed as soon as possible to get benefits to people who are out of work,” Paquette said.

Once the system is fixed, payments for Tuesday through Thursday’s claims will be processed and sent to the bank that night and then forwarded through the bank’s normal processing to debit cards or individuals’ direct deposit accounts in their own banks.

“We have pulled in additional resources to get the affected servers up and running again. We hope to have the system back on line this afternoon,” Chief Information Officer Jim Smith said.

The Department of Labor will post updates about the delay on its website.


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