System Interruptions cause unemployment payment delay

by Taylor Adams

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – On Monday morning, thousands of Oklahomans did not receive their anticipated weekly unemployment benefits as well as the new extended benefit that was planned to start this week.

“I checked at midnight, I checked at 2, I checked at 4. I was up all night,” said Bridget Ellis, who exhausted her regular unemployment benefits and had been waiting on the extension payments.

The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission says the delays are due to “system interruptions.” The agency posted this statement to facebook early Monday morning:

“OESC is experiencing payment delays on CAA payments posting to claimants cards and accounts due to system disruptions. The team is working to address the issue and we will continue to post updates as new information is available. We know many of you are awaiting CAA payments and appreciate your patience as we work to fix the issue. We are anticipating that payments will still be made today, 1/25.”

Ellis says the problems should have been avoided.

“It’s taken three weeks. They said they were gonna do testing to make sure it went through on Monday morning. What happened?”

Ellis has lost two different jobs because of the pandemic and says waiting for her unemployment benefits has been a nightmare.

“I’ve been without money and it’s been really, really hard. I’ve been putting off everybody, robbing Peter to pay Paul basically,” she said.

As of 12 p.m. Monday, payments from OESC had not gone out yet.