IT chaos at Seco Thousands of unemployed people fear for their daily allowances
Since January, Seco has been struggling with problems with the new payment system for unemployment benefits. Many of those affected are waiting for their money and politicians are demanding answers.
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- Following the introduction of Seco's new IT system Asal 2, the unemployment insurance funds in Switzerland are experiencing massive technical problems.
- As a result, the payment of daily allowances has been delayed in some cases, causing existential hardship for many unemployed people.
- Politicians are now calling for clarification, while the Swiss Federal Audit Office had already warned of the risks of the project.
A new computer system is shaking up the payment of unemployment benefits in Switzerland. "At the moment, we must be talking about the biggest crisis in an IT system changeover in unemployment insurance," writes the head of the largest unemployment insurance fund in an internal email to Unia employees. The letter is available to the "Tages-Anzeiger".
Asal 2, the new IT system of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco), is responsible for the disruption. It was introduced at the turn of the year and is intended to control the calculation and payment of daily allowances in all 33 unemployment insurance funds throughout Switzerland. However, since its launch, technical failures have become more frequent - particularly on the Job-Room platform, which jobseekers have to use to upload their documents in order to receive benefits, the newspaper continues.
This has serious consequences for many of the 145,000 registered unemployed people. "Many of those who call now speak poor German. They simply didn't understand the request to file earlier and are now left with nothing," says an employee of an unemployment insurance fund switchboard to the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper. According to her, some of those seeking advice had been waiting for their money since December, and two had even contacted her from emergency accommodation after losing their homes.
It is still unclear whether all insured persons will receive their money on time in January.
Seco initially rejected reports
Seco initially rejected reports of major problems, but then spoke on Thursday of "technical difficulties" that were being resolved "at full speed". When asked by the Tages-Anzeiger, it said that delays could "not be completely ruled out". Internally, an appeal was made on Friday to the health insurance funds to pay out "advances to eligible insured persons".
The Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) has been warning of risks in the development of the predecessor project Asalfutur for years. Its audit reports criticized a lack of planning, poor risk management and an unclear allocation of roles. In this context, experts speak of "avoidable teething troubles".
Politicians are now also looking into the case. Councillor of States Flavia Wasserfallen (SP) has demanded that Seco inform the Social Affairs Committee "about the extent of the problems and how they can be rectified", writes the newspaper.
