Colorado Launches New Unemployment System; Many Report It's Not Working

DENVER (CBS4) - After five days of going dark, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment has launched its new unemployment benefits system. However, it's not working for many.

"I have three little ones, and we have mortgage payment and car payments so it will be very problematic for us if we don't receive payments for weeks or months," Bethany Maher said.

The new MyUI+ was supposed to sync existing claims and accounts together, provided some reset their password, instead, some like Maher can't log in.

"I have sent in for new temporary passwords, over a dozen times," she explained.

In anticipation of the massive crunch of users trying to log in for the launch, the state set up a third-party call center to assist users, but it was seemingly overloaded.

"Tried the numbers listed and was directed to a virtual assistant who said they could not answer my question and that a call back would be scheduled," Maher said.

In the new few prompts, she was told there were no callbacks available, leading to a problem many had been dealing with for months under the old system.

"I can't imagine if I was sitting in this predicament and being told that I need to wait until the end of the month or next month," she said.

However, that is the situation many who are trying to file for pandemic unemployment claims face.

The department explains to one user, "Congress extended the benefits late into the night on January 2, 2021.  We have to reprogram MyUI+ to accept those extensions. That should be in late January or early February."

When that occurs, users can request back payments.  In the meantime, many like Maher are simply working to get some answers for help.

"I'm hoping that I can reach someone tomorrow but I'm not confident based on my experience in reaching anyone at that office," she added.