An upload error involving tax documents caused an inadvertent sharing of personal information to the wrong claimants on Tuesday morning.
On Tuesday the Maine Department of Labor began its annual process of uploading 1099-G tax documents online accounts to those who received unemployment insurance in 2021. The unemployment tax documents include a claimant’s name, address, last four digits of their social security number and the amount of benefits received last year.
However, an error occurred during the upload, and the tax documents of 146 claimants were shared into the wrong accounts, officials said. The process was immediately halted and the documents that had been uploaded up to that point were removed within a couple hours.
The department identified 146 Mainers whose information was seen by another claimant and 117 claimants who tried to access their documents who may have seen incorrect information, officials said. However, 29 of the documents included no additional information beyond the person’s name and mailing address.
Claimants who were affected will receive an email and letter in the mail notifying them of the error and credit monitoring will be offered to them, officials said.
The error will not prevent them from receiving the documents by Jan. 31.