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Working Out The Bugs With Online Applications
posted (August 10, 2020)
The Government's online application process for the Unemployment has been mostly successful, since a vast majority of the applications were completed electronically.

But, the Minister also discussed a few of the technical problems they've been encountering with errors and glitches that have unfortunately come with a mostly-online process:

Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett - Minister of State, Labour, Local Government, Rural Development
"There are 2 issues. 1, the singular one that we get the most notifications, requests, asking for help is where people are getting a message that says their number is already in the system, when they've already filled out their application, and think that they're inputting it for the first time. What we're discovering is that once people have completed filling out their forms, sometimes, when they press, they get a little too enthusiastic, and they don't press once. They press twice, but it's the second press that the response is coming from because you cannot send the application more than once. So, that's the issue there. And the second issue that we're getting, several people have called staff about it, and even the guys at CITO were telling me that a couple of people have called to say they're having an issue with the number of middle names that they have. So, a person might have 2 middle names, and both middle names are on the card, but they might not be in the system in the way you are inputting it. So, I tell people, they're only a limited number of ways you can try to put in your middle name, and your last name. Or sometimes, you have 2 last names. Women sometimes have 2 last names. But, Social Security Board may have one as a middle name, and so, you have to sort that through, and sometimes, it's trial and error to find out how it is in the system. The reality is that one of the biggest changes that we've made to the system that will allow us to not have so many errors in terms of input of name and social security number is that you have to put in your correct name, your correct social security number, and your correct birth date for you to move past that screen, and go to input an application. If you move past that screen, it means that nobody has used your number before. If that pass that screen and go to the end of the application process, and then get back that you applied already, it means that you pressed 2 times."

If you have any queries about your application, the Minister is urging that you contact the staff of the Unemployment Relief Program at their email address, unemployment@covid19.bz. You can also send a text message to the telephone number, 613-0095.

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