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Surge of callers clogs state's unemployment system: State number not always accessible to unemployed workers seeking benefits(Santa Fe New Mexican, The Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Dec. 27--You've just been laid off, and you're trying to file for unemployment benefits. So you call the state's unemployment number. That sounds easier than it is. Chances are, at least in recent days, you're going to get a recorded voice telling you that due to a high volume of callers, there aren't enough people to help you, so call back later. Then it hangs up on you. That's what happened to The New Mexican on four out of six calls to the number, 841-4000, on Friday and Wednesday. But if you're "lucky" and you don't get the call-back-later message, you might get put on hold for what seems like an eternity. The state admits the average wait before a caller gets to talk to a human being is up to 40 minutes. Some say it's even longer. And it's not a toll-free call for numbers outside Albuquerque. "There's simply not enough customer-service representatives to handle the calls," said one state employee with knowledge of the unemployment system, who asked not to be identified. "People are hanging up and not getting their unemployment checks. They're losing their unemployment benefits." Another problem: There aren't enough Spanish-speaking customer-service representatives to handle the unemployment calls from Spanish-speaking claimants, the state employee said. Though it would be difficult to determine how many people haven't received their unemployment checks because of the phone system, Arcy Baca, president of the local chapter of American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, agreed there's a big problem in taking unemployment claims. "I've heard from a lot of people with that problem," Baca said Friday. "I'm not complaining about the work of my fellow state employees. Something's wrong with the system. They haven't hired enough people to handle this work." The faltering economy is responsible for a surge in unemployment claims. A spokeswoman for the state Workforce Solutions Department, which is responsible for unemployment checks, said Friday that the state is handling about twice the number of claims than usual for this time of year. The week of Dec. 14, the state made 20,321 unemployment payments. The week before, there were 18,746 payments, while the week of Nov. 30, there were 17,152 unemployment payments. New Mexico's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in November 2008, up from 3 percent a year before. The good news is the national unemployment figure for November was 6.7 percent. One reason for a big increase in calls to the state number is the federal government recently extended unemployment benefits, spokeswoman Carrie Moritomo said Friday. The state has made some effort to handle the increase in unemployment calls. "We extended the hours," Moritomo said. "We added 15 additional staff." She also said her department is installing two additional T-1 lines, so the state will be able to handle 46 additional calls at a time. Workforce Solutions staff is meeting regularly trying to deal with these problems, Moritomo said. In anticipation of January -- usually the month with the heaviest unemployment claims -- the department has contacted school-bus companies, who normally lay off workers during winter break, to get the names of the unemployed in advance. Why not go back to the old system, in which unemployed workers filing for benefits simply dropped by the local office of what was then called the Labor Department to fill out the proper forms? Moritomo said the federal government in 2003 mandated states go to centralized filing systems. There's a Web site that can be used to file unemployment claims -- https://uiclaims.state.nm.us. But some users have reported getting an error message when attempting to access the site. Last month, Moritomo suggested people having such problems delete the cookies in their browser. But there's nothing on the Workforce Solutions Web site to let users know this tip. Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or [email protected]. To see more of The Santa Fe New Mexican, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.santafenewmexican.com/. Copyright (c) 2008, The Santa Fe New Mexican Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |