Computerized Benefits Checks

Unemployed Missourians have a new way to keep track of what they’re getting and how long they have until the benefits run out. Unemployed workers in Missouri are eligible for 26 weeks of jobless benefits, as much as 270-dollars a week, within a calendar year. Some workers are off work…get a job…lose it…get a new one…lose it….and along the way they can lose track of how much they’re supposed to get…and how long they can expect coverage. Department spokesman Tammy Cavender says they can go to the department’s special website, provide some personal information for security reasons, and then tap into their own status page. Cavender says benefits are often received through direct deposit and nothing is sent to the person through the mail. She says the new system will let the person check to make sure the benefit has been paid. She says the new system will save a lot of time and work for jobless Missourians as well as a lot of time and work for department employees who work at the department’s four call centers fielding calls asking for the kinds of information that will be available on the web page. Unemployed Missourians will have to make weekly applications for their benefits and report on their job-finding efforts. They cannot do that on this web page, but they can do it on another one in the department system.