Donnow & raf remind me of people I dealt with before I retired. It was a private business, and very technical. But also much in the public view. The company had been successful for nearly 100 years. I constantly had to deal with people telling me how we should do things. They would have no clue what we were even doing. Much like these two the less they new the more silly things they would say. But then the world is full of know-it-alls.

Believe me, donnaw, it's far more than data verification and entry. It's taking a case, reviewing the facts, interpreting unemployment law as it applies to the case and then paying, not paying or recovering payments. With the possibly of tax dollars being improperly paid out to claimants would you rather that they take short cuts or give these workers thorough training?

Walter....it's data entry, and verifying information. How hard can that be. And yes, I have worked with computers and benefit systems. I'm sure the people that verify benefits aren't the same as the IT programmers.

I guess you would have to ask all the recipients of government assistance (unemployment, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans benefits, student loans, TANF, Sec. 8, Energy Assistance, WIC, food stamps) that rely on such programs to eat, feed, clothe, educate and provide healthcare for their children, and keep a roof over their heads how dysfunctional they believe the programs to be and if they would prefer viable alternatives, which have never been credibly proposed, to what they already receive.

This is another example of how disfunctional government is. Expecting this type of system to run healthcare and be functional is a fairytale.

Oh donnaw,
Sounds like you've never worked with a computer in your life. These claims are backlogged because they cannot be automatically processed within the state's computer system. They have to be reviewed and then manually entered through numerous steps that basically amounts to computer programming to convince the system to pay the claimant the correct amount. If there was an overpayment the amount of benefits payable also has to be adjusted manually. Once again so many people believe that trained chimps could do the work that state workers do. You greatly underestimate the intricacies of a system that is responsible for paying thousands upon thousands of claimants each week and has to make sure that anytime a claimant gets an incorrect payment that it is corrected.

And this sounds like such a hard job that requires a lot of training, right! Should take all of a couple of hours of training on how to verify
information.

They're not part timers. They're temporary. They'll be working full-time. Some will even get over time. Of course, the faster they work, the sooner they'll be out of a job. What's crazy is that the same sub-department that's now hiring new employees that will have to be trained to handle this backlog laid off numerous fully trained and very capable employees at the end of July and beginning of August. Why? Well, Gov Walker was all over the Secretary of the DWD to get rid of as many state workers as he could. So out the door they went even though the backlog was already clearly building up. Our special little boy Scottie is such a great leader.

A backlog of the unemployed. The new "normal"

Eventually people will realize the mistakes are meant for learning not repeating. I didn't vote for Obama's second term - fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

What will the Dems say in 2014 when it's worse then 2012?

Why not make it 18 full time employees so it gets done faster? Oh, because WI might have to pay benefits? I hope what goes around comes around (karma).