Some Unemployed Californians Need To Wait For Their Checks

About 50,000 unemployed Californians have had their benefit checks delayed as the state struggles to implement a computer system upgrade.
The Sacramento Bee reports that the Employment Development Department processed about 15,000 of the delayed claims by Tuesday morning and hoped to finish the rest by the end of the week.
The delay, affecting about 6 percent of the state's 800,000 claimants, is the latest black eye for a state that has had difficulty executing technology projects. State Controller John Chiang dumped a quarter-billion-dollar state payroll system upgrade earlier this year.
Officials say they have been working for months to upgrade its 30-year-old unemployment insurance processing system. The project is part of a multiyear, nearly $188 million system upgrade.