Update, Feb. 26:

Capital One, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo have agreed to refund overdraft fees incurred by unemployment claimants whose benefits were delayed by a technical glitch in the District’s unemployment system, At-Large D.C. Councilmember Elissa Silverman announced Friday.

“D.C. workers receiving unemployment shouldn’t lose money for our error,” Silverman said in a statement.

The District’s Office of Employment Services said earlier this week that it would not reimburse overdraft fees stemming from the glitch.

Customers with Capital One and Wells Fargo must contact their local branch to request a refund, according to Silverman’s office. Bank of America says their customers don’t need to take further action to be reimbursed.

The three major banks represent nearly half of the region’s consumer banking market, according to a press release from Silverman’s office. The lawmaker says her office plans to contact other banks to request reimbursements for their customers.

Update, Feb. 22: 

The technical glitch from a vendor that processes unemployment benefits affected more than 39,000 people, District officials said Monday.

Those affected should have payments arrive by Tuesday or Wednesday, according to Department of Unemployment Services director Unique Morris-Hughes. The District is not reimbursing people who had late fees or other fees associated with the problem.

Morris-Hughes says they’ve made changes in the system’s code to resolve the issue.

“We are going to make sure we work with our vendor even closer than we have before to continue to test the system to ensure that no other technical issues like this occur,” she said.

DOES is also looking to replace the system and has issued a request for proposal for a replacement.

Original story:

D.C. workers say the city’s unemployment office failed to distribute some benefits this week due to a technical error — and the city’s Department of Employment Services has not been forthcoming with solutions.

Multiple claimants contacted WAMU/DCist on Thursday and Friday to report lapses in their benefits this week after DOES announced it was experiencing a “new technical issue.” Dozens more tweeted their frustration at the agency.

A spokesperson for DOES says the error stemmed from technical upgrades and claimants can expect to receive their benefits within “2-3 business days.”

“As part of ongoing modifications and system updates around the Continued Assistance Act, a technical process issue occurred with the unemployment benefits system administrator, OnPoint. Since we were first made aware of the issue, we have been working with the vendor to get it fixed as soon as possible,” says a statement provided to WAMU/DCist.

“We understand how stressful this is for those awaiting payments, and we are doing everything we can to address the issue now and ensure it does not happen again in the future,” the statement adds.

An agency spokesperson told ABC 7 that it’s “still investigating the exact number of people impacted.”

At-Large D.C. Councilmember Elissa Silverman, who chairs the council’s labor committee, says she’s concerned about financial impacts on claimants who have bills automatically deducted from their bank accounts. If bill payments can’t go through because claimants didn’t have enough money in their accounts, they could be hit with late fees or overdraft charges.

“I don’t think our claimants should have any financial consequences for what comes down to an error on our part,” Silverman says. The Councilmember says she’s asking DOES to “figure out how to make people whole.”

The agency is starting to contact individuals about the delay and provide information about when they can expect payments, the lawmaker says.

Silverman’s committee is expected to conduct oversight hearings of the agency early next month. DOES Director Dr. Unique Morris-Hughes is scheduled to testify March 5; public witnesses can testify March 3.

The mayor recently announced D.C. would invest an additional $11 million to improve the city’s troubled unemployment system, which has been overwhelmed by a record number of claims during COVID-19. Some frustrated workers have called for Morris-Hughes to resign.

There were more than 21,000 active unemployment claims in D.C. during the week ending Feb. 6. Nearly 30,000 claims were active the prior week for two separate unemployment programs funded by the federal government.

This post has been updated with information from a Feb. 22 press conference.