Thousands of jobless workers who were relying on state unemployment benefits just to make ends meet were told they'd committed fraud.
Some were fined and forced to give money back to the state, all because a computer system screwed up.
Thursday the people in charge of the unemployment insurance agency were called before the senate oversight committee to explain its plan to fix the mess.
"We're gonna always look for ways that we can improve customer service," said Stephanie Comai, director of Michigan Talent Investment Agency.
The Unemployment Insurance Agency is a department within MI Talent. "We are not never done," she said. "There's always changes we can make."
The system started sending out fraud notices to 60,000 people in 2013. Attorneys say of the 60,000, 92-percent of them were innocent.
The agency says it's working to be able to respond to those mistakes more quickly.
"We're putting in additional phone lines across the state in the Michigan Works agency locations," Comai said. "So that claimants who have a question about their claim can reach our call centers directly."
Lawmakers say the agency needs to do more to make sure this doesn't happen again.
"It seems like the agency has been very reactive rather than proactive," said Sen. Peter MacGregor, Oversight Committee Chair. "They need to determine the best practices. They need to come up with a good procedures so that we don't have these reactive pendulum swings."
The committee has says the agency needs to come back with an improvement plan by the end of June.
