The long delays plaguing Minnesotans seeking unemployment benefits have decreased after the state hired people to iron out problems in a new computerized claims system, officials said Wednesday.

The average wait for someone inquiring by phone about benefits was 3 minutes 36 seconds on Monday -- a day that typically is the busiest of the week for claims, said Dan McElroy, commissioner of the Department of Employment and Economic Development.

He said the delays dropped substantially from two months ago, when it was "not unusual for people to wait an hour," and there were "some horror stories of bad Mondays with people waiting an hour and 45 minutes."

His account of shorter wait times is consistent with the recent experience of Jim Gelbmann, administrator of the House Committee on Higher Education and Workforce Development Polices, which heard testimony two weeks ago on the delays from frustrated applicants.

"I'm still getting maybe two or three calls a week," said Gelbmann, referring to applicant complaints. "But during November and December I was probably getting two or three calls a day."

But Gelbmann said he's hearing of a new wrinkle involving unemployment insurance. Many tax forms that McElroy's department sent out this month for reporting income, withholding and credits had figures in a wrong box.

"There are 34,000 people involved," McElroy said. "We're sending them a letter today." He blamed the problem on human error, explaining, "A programmer in our business-information technology unit put it in the wrong box."

The department is spending $14,000 to send out the notices alerting unemployment compensation recipients to the correct tax information.

The new computerized system for processing unemployment claims has cost the state nearly $43 million. It replaces a computer system the state deemed antiquated and increasingly difficult to maintain.

Some problems remain

Soon after the employment department rolled out the new automated telephone and online system in October, numerous complaints started coming in. More than 1,000 people endured significant delays in receiving checks under the system.

The longest delays typically involved cases where eligibility was in doubt. The state often took five or six weeks to determine eligibility instead of the three weeks that the federal government recommends for most cases.

McElroy said current figures show that the state is meeting the federal limit in all cases.

He credited the hiring of 32 customer service representatives this month for eliminating many of the delays.

"With 89,000 people in the system, I'm sure there are still some things we need to fix," he said. "But the good news is they can get through to tell us that."

Pat Doyle • 651-222-1210