The Kansas Department of Labor continues to receive complaints about missing payments and long hold times as it works through a backlog of roughly 32,000 claims for various unemployment benefits.Jason Croft lives in Durham, Kansas. He told KMBC 9 Investigates that he's spent hours trying to navigate the state's confusing unemployment system as he struggles to find work."I hope that our government sees what they've done to us and helps us and helps the people that need the help right now," Croft said.The department's former leader resigned after struggles with unemployment claims earlier this summer, as state leaders have criticized the slow pace of response since the COVID-19 pandemic began – namely a 40-year-old computer system that struggles to process claims. Seven thousand of the current claims in the backlog are for regular unemployment benefits – down from 25,000 this summer, according to the department's acting secretary Ryan Wright.But 25,000 claims remain unfulfilled for the state's Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. The program helps self-employed workers, independent contractors, and gig workers like Uber and Lyft drivers. The state is adding 56 workers to handle PUA claims starting Monday, Wright said."We fully understand the frustrations people are experiencing," he said. "If anybody is owed $1 from this agency, they will receive it if their claims are found to be valid."Wright said the decades-old computer system continues to have issues, as they work on updates. The department's system went down for maintenance Tuesday, and was back online Wednesday morning.The secretary said he's hoping to work with legislators after the new year to modernize the unemployment claim system."If you don't invest in government, this is what happens," Wright said. "We all want government to run efficiently and limited, but if you don't invest in these programs, this is what happens -- they will break, and then we have to try and fix them. And that's exactly what we're doing."