By WECT Staff | June 5, 2020 at 10:56 PM EDT – Updated June 8 at 5:56 AM
NORTH CAROLINA (WECT) – The Assistant Secretary Pryor Gibson of the Division of Employment Security (DES) announced, Friday, an aggressive plan to resolve all claims for benefits, prioritizing the oldest claims first.
An abundance of claims overwhelmed the system at the outset; although most eligible claims are processed quickly, complex claims or those with issues require specialist attention to be resolved.
Improvement measures being implemented to speed up the processing of claims and improve customer service include:
- Dedicating a team of experts to focus solely on resolving the oldest and most complicated claims.
- Connecting callers with aging claims to advanced call center agents who can assist with complex claims.
- Training new call center agents, reassigning existing staff members and partnering with other state agencies to increase the number of people working on claims issues.
- Providing the option by phone for people to check their claim status without waiting to speak to a DES representative. Similar status update services will soon be available online. The status updates provide detail about where the individual’s claim is in the process.
To date, more than one million people in North Carolina have filed claims for unemployment benefits since the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic began to be felt in mid-March.
Ninety-three percent of the one million claims received since March 15 have been processed.
The number of outstanding claims filed more than three weeks ago is steadily decreasing and fewer than 57,000 are still pending resolution.
The DES remains committed to giving every claimant a decision in a timely manner in order to bring all claims to a resolution.
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