When the Arizona Department of Economic Security launched the CACTUS unemployment system in September, it said the new tool would make it easier for people to manage their benefits. But in the month since the self-service portal went live, Arizonans who rely on those benefits say the portal is bogged down by glitches and other errors.
“A Better Way to Access Unemployment Insurance Services is Now Available!” reads the headline on the department’s website, which states CACTUS went live on Sept. 7.
Arizonans can use the system to apply for benefits, file appeals, respond to eligibility questions and report on their efforts to find a new job, according to the website.
“The Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES) has been working to improve how you access Arizona’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) Program,” the department wrote. “That is why we launched CACTUS, a new self-service portal designed to make managing your UI benefits easier.”
Arizonans using the new system say CACTUS has fallen well short of that goal.
A failure to communicate
Ahwatukee resident Chester, who asked that his last name not be used for privacy reasons, has applied for benefits for five straight weeks.
“And all of my claims were approved. I never received a dollar,” Chester told KJZZ.
He said his claims show up in the system as “paid,” but he has not received any funds from the department. And he’s had no luck contacting the department for help, saying phone lines are jammed.
“And I've spent hours, literally hours, on the phone trying to contact them,” Chester said. “Unless you try to contact them at exactly 8 a.m., there's no way to get on the phone to them.”
Yuma resident Matt Gerhards said that once CACTUS launched, the system threw his unemployment claim into a “loop.”
“For some reason, it opened up like a new claim for me rather than the existing one that I had previously,” Gerhards said.
While trying to fill out required information in CACTUS, the system told him he needed to file a new claim. But when he clicked the link to do so, it told him he already has an existing claim and does not need to file a new one.
“I can't file online and I can't, you can't get past it,” he said.
Unlike Chester, Gerhards had some success getting in contact with the department after the system first launched, though he said, “Now, you can't speak to anybody.”
Gerhards said the person he spoke with gave him an email address where he could submit claims after he had resorted to sending his documentation via fax.
“What I was stuck doing then was writing it out on paper, using the form they provided, and I'd take it down to the unemployment office and have them fax it in for me,” he said. “Well, the last three weeks, when I've done that, I don't know if anybody's been processing those faxes, because they never got touched.”
Gerhards submitted his most recent claim over the weekend and is waiting for it to be processed.
‘Typical government failure’
Hundreds of other Arizonans have flooded platforms like Facebook and Reddit with similar stories, saying they are having problems submitting claims in the first place or waiting weeks for payments to process.
A post on the DES Facebook page announcing the CACTUS launch on Sept. 7 has over 150 comments, nearly all of which detail problems with the new system.
But when asked if she knew about any glitches, Gov. Katie Hobbs said, “I haven’t been informed of any.”
And DES did not respond to specific questions about problems detailed by Arizonans on social media and in interviews with KJZZ.
“The new Unemployment Insurance (UI) system, CACTUS, launched on September 7 and offers a modern interface and self-service portal with helpful tools to improve filing and managing UI benefits. In the first two benefit weeks, over 60,000 claims were filed, and more than $13.3 million in UI benefits was paid to claimants,” according to a statement provided by a department spokesman.
Meanwhile, residents like Chester and Gerhards don’t have access to the benefits they qualify for under Arizona’s unemployment program, which is funded by unemployment taxes levied against employers.
“It's government failure, typical government failure,” Chester said.
Chester said it’s the first time he has ever filed for unemployment.
“I need to pay my mortgage,” he said. “I've paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in income tax to the state of Arizona, and the very first time I needed the system support in the state of Arizona, I've been summarily rejected.”
Gerhards said he was able to build up his savings before facing unemployment.
“I'm not destitute at this point, but that income coming from the unemployment is beneficial, and to not have it for the three weeks that I was supposed to get it, it's not great,” he said.
