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Consumers who have their unemployment benefits deposited into prepaid debit card accounts in Missouri and Oklahoma reportedly have faced problems accessing funds while those states finish their transition to a paperless system. Missouri recipients earlier this month experienced long waits when they called a call center that helps cardholders having trouble accessing their unemployment funds. The call center has since added more staff to handle the large volume of complaints, says a spokesperson from the Missouri Division of Employment Insurance. Most problems stemmed from recipient confusion about pass codes and PINs the state assigned to them in a letter. The Division of Employment Insurance also deactivated some cards after a certain number of incorrect entries, the spokesperson says. In Oklahoma, some unemployment recipients did not receive their debit cards in the mail on time. All those problems have been resolved, but some of the debit cards still may be in the mail, says an official with the state's Employment Security Commission. Oklahoma has mailed 5,000 debit cards in total since Dec. 1.
