Glitch in city system causes nearly 40K in DC to miss unemployment benefits last week

A glitch in Washington, D.C.’s, unemployment benefits system led to nearly 40,000 people missing out on their benefits last week, officials said on Monday.

The error was caused by a vendor handling the system’s updates, which are necessary to extend several unemployment programs within the city, the city’s Department of Employment Services Director Unique Morris-Hughes said, according to The Washington Post.

“We are going to make sure we work with our vendor even closer than we have before to continue to test the system to ensure that no other technical issues like this occur,” Morris-Hughes said.

Huges said that D.C. workers should expect to receive the missed benefits this Wednesday.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) said she and other city officials “terribly regret” the issue. She also said the city does not plan to cover any overdraft fees or other expenses that may have been incurred due to the error, the Post reported.

According to Morris-Huges, the city has been looking into a “cloud- or Web-based solution” to support the current umemployment benefits system. D.C. is currently looking to complete its search for a new system, according to the Post. 

The city has seen nearly 176,180 unemployment claims since the beginning of the pandemic, according the Department of Employment Services.