The New Jersey Labor Department continues to work to fix computer problems that have plagued the system over the past couple of weeks.

Unemployment Office
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Officials say the glitches may have delayed some payments to people already in the system by a day or so, but those filing first-time unemployment claims don't have to worry.

Ron Marino, the Jersey Labor Department's Assistant Commissioner for Income Security, says "if you lose your job and file for unemployment benefits, you can do so for 6 days - from Sunday through Saturday of the following week - after that, the Department of Labor contacts the employer - for confirmation - then makes a monetary determination for the UI award, and then contacts the person filing for benefits - all of which takes about two weeks."

He says even if there's a computer problem "you have that whole week - Sunday, Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday - it really doesn't make a difference what day of that week did you file your initial claim - we date it as of that Sunday…there's no issue, there's no situation where by the week in which the individual is filing his claim - after they ceased work - that they would not be paid."

Marino adds after you file an initial claim "we go through a particular process and then we go back to you and say fine you can start certifying for your unemployment benefits…the whole process is somewhere between 2 and 3 weeks - we have federal guidelines that we are required to do…but the computer glitches won't affect it."

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