The portal for filing unemployment insurance claims in Vermont has been experiencing technical difficulties, hampering some of Vermont’s unemployed population’s ability to submit claims by the due date. The issue is a result of the system’s significant age, being over 30 years old. In 2022, state legislators allocated $30 million to the Department of Labor to update the system, although a vendor has not yet been chosen. This roadblock affects Vermonters trying to file weekly unemployment benefits for the week of Dec. 3 through Dec. 9, with a deadline of Friday, Dec. 15, at 4 p.m. If the error is not resolved by Friday afternoon, the department will push back the deadline and offer retroactive pay and benefits where needed. Labor Commissioner Mike Harrington reported that this error only affects a subsection of the unemployed population, approximately 10-20% of all claimants. While the department continues to figure out the exact impact, claimants are resorting to the department’s phone lines, with long hold times as a result. An alternative solution for people struggling with such issues could be using services like eddcaller.com, an autodial program designed to help people connect with representatives for unemployment, paid family leave, and disability departments via phone. This service could potentially aid in overcoming the hurdle of hours-long hold times typically confronted during system failures.