500 Vermont unemployment recipients hit by ongoing computer glitch

MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – Headaches continue at the Vermont Department of Labor after a computer glitch is preventing some Vermonters from filing their weekly unemployment claims.

Tom Cole works as a chef at the Maple Leaf Diner in Londonderry. But when this summer’s floods tore through town and closed the diner, he and other staff were forced onto unemployment.

“I have not been successful to this date in getting any clarity on it,” Cole said. He says he tried to file his claim this week but was unable to do so. When he called the department, he waited on the phone for hours. “I, along with many many other Vermonters in this state, are at a dead end and it’s winter and we have families we have to take care of.”

Vermont labor officials estimate up to 500 people are running into the computer snafu. “The probably 60-year-old legacy mainframe that we have right now — which we are modernizing,” Gov. Phil Scott said Wednesday.

Officials say the computer is running on COBOL software, which issued its first check back in the summer of 1970. The situation is similar to a crush of claims that paralyzed the system in the early days of the pandemic. So why does it keep happening? The department’s mainframe is just one project that needs an upgrade. State officials say there are at least six programs across state government that need millions of dollars in upgrades. But for decades, the expensive upgrades have been put on the back burner or derailed.

“We put money forward back when I was in the Senate and some of those systems never came to fruition for one reason or another,” Gov. Scott said.

Since the pandemic, the state has put millions toward upgrades and the Scott administration has carved out money for upgrades, including a major overhaul at the DMV. The Department of Labor is in the process of a $30 million upgrade approved last year.

As for Tom Cole and his missing claim, he says the years of deferred maintenance erode confidence in government. “You have to be accessible, you have to be present, available,” he said.

Labor officials say people won’t miss out on their benefits if they are late in filing because of the error. A timeline for when the system will be back online is unknown.

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