Given all the problems folks had with the state’s old unemployment benefit system during this pandemic – the state is launching a new system to help get unemployment payments into the hands of eligible Pennsylvanians much faster.
Department of Labor and Industry Acting Secretary Jennifer Berrier said Monday that the the implementation of the new system is less than a month away.
The new unemployment benefit system is expected to go live on June 8, and will help speed up claims.
“That means the individuals who have been waiting for someone to review their claims will start hearing back from us faster and getting their payments more swiftly,” Berrier said.
Over the past year Channel 11 has received countless calls and emails from folks frustrated waiting for their claims to be handled.
“I understand everyone’s frustration after we were dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and we had additional federal programs thrusted upon us and exceptional demands during this time of crisis so as i agree we could have implemented these changes sooner that’s not how it occurred,” Berrier said.
Berrier said the state wasn’t staffed at the time to handle the record level unemployment and that this new technology will help and be a major update from a 40-year-old system. The state also just hired 230 new customer service representatives to help folks who run into any issues or have questions during this transition.
“We are ready to be flexible and accommodating to help individuals get every payment they are owed our customer service phone line and email will be remain open throughout the transition,” she said.
It’s very important people know the unemployment compensation system will be offline for several days during next month’s transition as the state works to transfer all the data into the new system.
“We know that payment displays from unable to file weekly certifications pose a hardship for many Pennsylvanians so as a result we’ve worked to coordinate this transition period to affect as few individuals as possible by positioning it over weekends,” Berrier said.
Unemployment recipients should check the state’s website to see which days they can file their claims. At this time the state is doing extensive testing on it’s new system to make sure there will be no issues during this transition next month.
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