Betty Adams of The Kennebec Journal reports:
Almost 600 people receiving unemployment benefits last week got direct-deposit information — including Social Security numbers — belonging to another person.
Dick Thompson, head of the state Office of Information Technology, said the misinformation was sent out May 27 while the office produced material for the Department of Labor.
“We received a print job and were running it, and there was an equipment malfunction,” Thompson said. “In restarting the piece of equipment, a mistake was made and it started one page off. It was an error and our quality assurance didn’t pick it up.”
Recipients received one page with their own information and another page with information belonging to a different person.
“It had several pieces of information, including year-to-date information, weekly amounts and a section where they could fill out and return for the following week,” he said.
Of the 5,000 forms sent out, 597 were incorrect.