When paired with manual processing, the application time is expected to be shortened to one week or less.
Meantime, Connecticut's labor officials had to scramble to reprogram their computers to handle the additional unemployment payouts.
Its decades-old system can process weekly payments only in the hundreds of dollars, or three digits. Problem is, the additional $600 from the federal government extends the payments into four digits.
"Once programming is complete, we must test to ensure accurate integrity and accounting measures," said Nancy Steffens, a spokeswoman for Connecticut's Department of Labor, who came out of retirement to help the agency amid a crush of jobless claims. She acknowledged that the aging COBOL system has made it "challenging" to handle the federally provided aid.
Some information from the Associated Press
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