KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansans tell 41 Action News they have yet to see positive changes within the Department of Labor after Gov. Laura Kelly announced she would be taking immediate action to resolve several issues two weeks ago.
Kelly announced she accepted former labor Secretary Delia Garcia's resignation after the department faced scrutiny for months of errors and late payments to claimants.
Since Garcia's departure, Kelly announced the department is teaming up with Accenture to provide operational and technical improvements within the department's system. Kelly also said the specialists brought in would work to improve communication between claimants and the department.
Wichita resident Donata Bell said she has yet to see any improvements in communication.
"It takes hundreds of attempts to get into the phone queue," Bell said.
Bell said she's still waiting on two weeks' worth of payments.
"I would like answers, and I want straight answers and I want honest answers, and I don't feel like they've given that at all," Bell said.
41 Action News reached out to the Department of Labor about communication. A spokesperson for the governor said they "are planning to add representatives and are working through the process now to make that happen."
Several Kansans also told 41 Action News the clawback error has not been resolved for everyone.
Kelly addressed this error and said the department withdrew money from 4,500 claimants' bank accounts due to a duplicate payment error. Several claimants told 41 Action News they never received a duplicate payment and the withdrawal caused an overdraft on their accounts.
Kelly announced a hotline and email for those affected to use.
41 Action News reached out to the department to ask how many claimants had the issue resolved. KDOL provided the following statement:
"The total universe of duplicate payments was approximately 4,000, but we believe the number of people who were actually impacted is significantly smaller. To date, we are working with fewer than 150 claimants to determine if their accounts were thrown into overdraft."
