Update From Secretary Bump On Unemployment Assistance Call Center Activity

Boston, MA- In light of the increasing number of individuals seeking unemployment assistance and services on the Teleclaim and Telecert systems, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development is providing an update on call center activity. For both systems, the Division of Unemployment Assistance is advising customers to take advantage of non-peak hours, afternoons and later in the week, to use the system and spread the call volume.

To file an initial claim, customers are advised to use the Teleclaim system, where they will speak with a live representative. The Teleclaim lines are open from Monday-Friday, 8:30am – 6:30pm and Saturday 8:00am – 1:30pm. The Telecert system allows individuals to claim their weekly benefit through an automated system by telephone. The Telecert lines are open from Sunday-Friday, 7:00am – 7:00pm. Customers can also use the Internet to claim their weekly benefit using the Webcert system online at www.mass.gov/eolwd. The Webcert system is available from Sunday-Friday, 7:00am – 7:00pm.

Massachusetts is working proactively by increasing capacity of the system and continuously monitoring the traffic. Since November, claims intake staff has nearly doubled, and hours have been extended into the evening and on Saturdays. Additionally, work is underway to further increase the capacity of the lines to accommodate more customers at one time.

“We are continuing to monitor the unprecedented increases in volume on the DUA Teleclaim phone lines and identifying solutions to increase the capacity and decrease wait times,” said Secretary Suzanne M. Bump. “We recognize that this is a difficult time for our customers, and through increased staffing and hours, as well as expansion of our system’s capacity, we will continue to be able to accommodate such a heavy volume of calls.”

Recent Activity

On Sunday, December 28^th, over 635,000 call attempts were made to the Telecert phone lines. The Telecert system is an automated system that allows for individuals with continued claims to claim their benefit payment for the previous week. This system is open from 7am-7pm from Sunday – Friday. While tied to the UI call center lines, this system is fully automated and is NOT for filing initial claims. Of those, more than 500,000 attempts were made in the morning hours, with over 100,000 call attempts made during the first 5 hours. Due to this high volume, a significant number of calls were not completed. In the hours between 2pm and 7pm, 43,505 call attempts were made with a success rate of 97.5%. For the week ending January 3^rd (shortened because of the New Years Holiday) DUA reported 202,931 weeks claimed via Telecerts and Webcerts and 44,949 calls answered on the regular UI Teleclaim lines.