1. Employment Security Advisory Committee
Julie Lord, Director Unemployment Insurance Customer Support
July 25, 2018

2. Agenda Introducing the UICS Division Improving services to claimants
More efficient benefit payments
Improving services to employers
Preventing fraud
Questions
Theme is customer support and service!

3. UICS In August 2017 UI Tax and Wage combined with UI Benefits
Provides a more integrated approach
Developing more efficiencies across the division
I learned this is how it used to be – What’s old becomes new!
UI is a continuum – we collect taxes so that we can pay benefits. When we work together it is more efficient for both claimants and employers as we tackle the very interesting and “never a dull moment” things that happen on both sides of the house.
For example. When there is a decision made regarding benefit payments, the sooner both T&W and UIB are all aware and on the same page, the better

4. Claimants’ Calls – Last Peak Season
Here is a snapshot of our call volumes from the last peak season – typically November – March
The blue bar represents all of the caller that receive a high volume message, the orange bar represents the calls entered for our agents to answer and the black dashed line represents the call answered.
Clearly we were not meeting our customer’s needs and we recognized a change had to be made.

5. Wait times too long!
This slide really speaks for itself – average wait times ranged from a high of 52 minutes in November to a low of 31 minutes in March. The trends for both wait times and handle times were moving in the right direction, but still completely unacceptable to our customers.
As a consumer of customer support, regardless of the entity, I expect good service. I can quickly become impatient and must admit I am that customer that tries hitting “0” to get to a live person. Our claimants are no different, and should receive excellent service!
Maybe a few of you were around when Gary Locke was governor? He launched a campaign for state employees called “Answer your darn phone”
We are doing something very similar IN UICSD – we will go into more detail in a few minutes

6. Customer Feedback Customer First focus groups provided feedback:
Claimants who call want to talk to a person
Claimants want faster and more efficient phone services
Claimants want improved and easier to understand eservices
Claimants appreciate expanded access to services in partnership with WorkSource
Claimants don’t understand the benefits process
*A new claimant survey will be conducted this fall to reach a broader audience
So what are our customers telling us?
Focus groups were held at six western Washington WorkSource offices between February 1 and April 3, responses from 59 participants were recorded.
Participants were claimants already at WorkSource offices for Re-employment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA).
Sessions ran 45 to 70 minutes with free-form interactive discussion and a written questionnaire.
1. During free form discussions, the most common complaint was the inability to contact an agent by phone.
2. The next greatest number of responses had to do with confusion and frustration regarding the content and language within eServices.
3. Third most common responses regarded difficulty using Secure Access Washington (SAW), the portal claimants use to establish their accounts.

7. The UI Benefits Process
Begin Unemployment Insurance Process Claimant applies for UI benefits
No-Issue Claims System processes automatically. Payment begins in 2-3 weeks.
In-Review Claims Claims are routed to the Claims Adjudication Center
Developed this graphic that will include imbedded links for additional information so that claimants can track their path through the system with more predictability for the flow of their claims.
Claims Adjudication Staff perform “fact finding” by contacting the employer and/or claimant for more information
UI Benefits Eligible
UI Benefits Ineligible

8. The UI Benefits Process
UI Benefits Eligible
UI Benefits Ineligible
Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) Either employer or claimant may appeal timely within 30 days
Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Appeal ALJ holds appeal hearing
Another feature we will launch in August is the ability to check the status of their claim - -the claimant will login to eServices, click a link for the active claim and also have a I want to check status shortcut to get to the summary. From there they will see the current high level status (pending , processing , paid…) and clicking on the link will provide a popup with more explanation to each status.
Appeal is Decided in Claimant’s Favor
Appeal is Decided in Employer’s Favor
UI Benefits Issued/Paid
Commissioner’s Review Office Either party has 15 days to appeal to the UI Review Board. The Board reviews file and makes determination.

9. Improved Services for Claimants
Hire 30 additional staff to:
Answer question-calls w/scripted response Monday - Friday
Transfer complex to intake agents
Schedule call-backs
Through web-based app – Trumba
Plan to add ability for claimants to schedule a call-back on esd.wa.gov
Plan to make available at WorkSource
Hire 12 additional intake staff for claims calls (112 total intake staff)
Continue to partner with WorkSource to assist claimants in local offices
Eligibility determination letters were re-written
We hope the tools we are providing will be helpful to claimants, but ultimately we simply must provide better customer service.
Last year, claimants could request a scheduled call back, but it may not have occurred at a time that was convenient for claimants. We want to give control of this function to the claimants so that we can maximize the efficieny of our agents and work with the claimant’s schedule to make sure we connect.
WorkSource Partnership
Direct phone lines to the Claims Center for claimants
Trained WS staff on eServices
Trained six WS staff on filing basic claims, weekly claims, and setting up a SAW account
One person in six offices: Colville, Spokane, Wenatchee, Yakima, Sunnyside, Columbia Basin
Dec. 22, 2017 through Feb. 23, 2018
225 customers served
High demand with monolingual Spanish customers

10. Claims by Filing Method
This slide is information for you about how claimants are interacting with us.
67% file initial claims online each month

11. Improved eServices Improved customer account creation process
Team dedicated to helping set up accounts – Secure Access Washington (SAW)
Removed confusing and unnecessary identity verification questions
Reduce the seven-day lockout for identity problems
Improved navigation, usability, and online Help function
A series of further eServices improvements are under way with project funding that will run through June 2019
Check status of claim functionality available in late August
This customer feedback was used to prioritize eServices improvement projects.
First major project was  SAW portal improvements in  
Second major project was major re-write of letters to customers explaining decisions on eligibility.
 A series of further eServices improvements are under way with project funding that will run through June 2019.

12. More Efficient Benefit Payments
Change to Benefit Payment Process
Aug 1 – transition away from paper benefit checks to debit cards or direct deposit
Just 25% of claimants request checks now
Change does not impact current claimants
Claimants will choose between a debit card and direct deposit

13. Benefits of Debit Cards
No check-cashing fees
Many locations to access benefits
Convenient, easy to use
Safe
Get cash at over 1,500 KeyBank ATMS nationwide – 55,000 ATMS worldwide
Cash out cards with no fee at MasterCard member banks
No wait for a check to be delivered each week
800 number for assistance
No requirement for a bank account
Online access to view transactions, pay bills, or transfer funds
No banking fees
Get text or notifications for account activity

14. Services to Employers
Surveyed employers and employer representatives to find out what was important to them
Sent 10,000 surveys on 8/28/17

15. And the survey said….

16. Employer Service Improvements
No cold handoffs – speak to live person
Call wait times are 2.22 minutes on average with an average of 6200 calls per month (compared to claimant call volume up to 67,000 per month)
Chat feature is on track
New survey in August to measure progress
Our average employer wait time for the past 12 months was 2 minutes and 22 seconds.  Our connect rate for the year was %.  However, these numbers were driven down prior to implementing a new phone schedule in December that moved our connect rates consistently into the 80% - 90% range and our wait times down towards 1 minute and 30 seconds.

17. Claimant Fraud Awareness

18. Protecting the UI Trust Fund
ESD’s Office of Special Investigations investigated almost 26,000 cases of possible fraud.
Through that work, OSI prevented the loss of $2.9 million in fraudulent unemployment insurance benefits, and an additional $9 million was turned over to the agency’s collections team for recovery.
The $2.9 million is prevention.
The $9 million is detection.

19. Protecting the UI Trust Fund
Fraud Prevention Unit
Cross-matches to identify benefits paid fraudulently
Dept of Health deceased individuals
Social Service Payment System
Misreported and unreported earnings
New hires
Tips from the public, as well as, local, state, and federal agencies
This team works to prevent funds for fraudulent benefits from ever leaving the trust fund.
DOH cross-match identifies claimants who match with someone the state believes to be deceased. Prevents people from using the identity of someone who has passed away to claim benefits.
SSPS is a crossmatch with DSHS that will identify claimants who are attempting to collect conflicting benefits.
The earnings crossmatch allows us to compare actual earnings reported by employers with what a claimant reports.
The new hire crossmatch compares the federal and state new-hire databases to our claimant database.

20. Protecting the UI Trust Fund
Fraud Detection Unit
Cross-matches to identify potential unemployment theft
Social security
Internet Protocol for ID theft
Workers compensation
Incarceration
Tips from the public, as well as, local, state, and federal agencies
This team works to detect funds for fraudulent benefits that are pending payment or are being paid.
The crossmatch with the Social Security Administration catches the payment of conflicting benefits. [Just FYI: This is not a “prevention” crossmatch because the SSA report is always about three months behind.]
The IP crossmatch helps us catch a number of types of potential fraud. For example, it triggers when: multiple claims are filed from one IP address; the IP address is outside the United States; SSN doesn’t match the claimant; address or other information doesn’t match the claimant.
The workers comp crossmatch catches claimants who may be collecting workers compensation while collecting unemployment benefits, which is not allowed by law.
The incarceration crossmatch compares our database to a database of people who are incarcerated. Depending on the number of days that a person is in jail, they may not be eligible for benefits. Goes to being able and available to look for – or accept – work.

21. Questions ?