I'm a pretty bleeding heart liberal. But to hear that this abominable system cost that much and took that long makes me want to rage. I understand it needs to be secure, etc (which apparently it's not even that if there's these thousands of cases of fraud that others are talking about), but the website they have is painfully outdated, and the system they've developed does not help people in need the way it should. Like OP, I was able to float myself for a few weeks while I was unemployed and they tried to figure out my claim, but the people who really need unemployment benefits the most are the kind of people who literally do not have enough money to live week to week without it. And these are not degenerates who are mooching off the system - these are the working poor who live precariously already because of job insecurity.