Duplicate Benefits Sent to Some Unemployed Workers Bookmark and Share

January 7, 2010

The Maine Department of Labor said today that roughly 7,100 unemployed workers received a duplicate benefit payment this week as a result of a processing issue that affected direct deposits.

The problem was discovered after direct deposits were made to accounts on Tuesday, January 5 and Labor Department officials are stressing that the issue was limited only to deposits made on that date.

The department is working with the Maine Office of Information Technology ? the agency that processes those financial transactions ? and TD Bank to reverse the duplicate payments within the next 24 hours.

People who received an extra direct deposit of unemployment benefits this week do not need to take any action to return the overpayment to the department. The reversal of the extra payment will occur automatically.

The department is notifying by mail each individual impacted by the problem and the Office of Information Technology has put in place manual procedures as safeguards while they continue to investigate the problem.

Updates will be provided as they become available on the Maine Department of Labor website at www.fileforui.com.