KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas Department of Labor announced it has chosen a company to modernize its legacy IT system.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the department said it's antiquated, 1970s system is to blame for the issues claimants faced getting unemployment money.
Many people have waited weeks and months to receive payments and in some cases years.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly calls this a significant step in fixing the system and promises Kansans a better experience in the future.
Some claimants are still waiting on payments, like local contractor David Saunders.
He said even before the stay-at-home orders went into effect in March 2020, he stopped getting calls for work.
He applied for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program for self-employed and gig workers and said he stopped receiving payments in June 2020.
"It was probably nine weeks of calling as much as I could, and I wasn't working so I called a lot," Saunders said.
Nearly two years later, he said he's still waiting for payments he's owed and it's been nearly impossible to get help from KDOL.
"I definitely feel like they totally dropped the ball," Saunders said. "The whole purpose of the money was to help people in time of extreme need."
His story is one of many KSHB 41 News reported during the last two years with the agency consistently telling us it's doing its best to fix a system never designed to handle the influx of claims.
The agency announced it will work with Tata Consultancy Services to modernize the IT system, which will take three to five years to complete.
Kelly said the state was close to modernizing its unemployment system before the previous administration stopped the process in 2011 and that decision directly led to the system's failures during the height of the pandemic.
Our request for an interview was declined Tuesday upon telling the department we would ask about the number of remaining unpaid claims.
As for Saunders, he said a representative recently contacted him about his claim. He's hoping his two-year long battle may finally be over soon.
"I answered her questions, and I'm just waiting for the next response," Saunders said.
