We announced that we’re augmenting agencies in nine states, including Idaho, Louisiana, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia, with remote agents to answer questions, support initial claims processing, and support the adjudication of Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, record numbers of jobs are being lost, causing an unprecedented number of people to file for unemployment benefits. As a leading partner to states for unemployment insurance programs, we’ve been tasked with helping multiple states by providing additional support for the surge in UI/PUA claims and increasing the speed of handling cases that have inundated state programs and their contact centers.
“Every day, our goal at Maximus is to help citizens connect to the vital services they need from government agencies,” said Bruce Caswell, President and CEO, Maximus. “The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a multitude of issues for Americans, including millions who have lost their jobs. Our work with states is focused on ensuring these citizens quickly get access to the benefits they deserve and drastically cutting down on the backlog of unanswered claims.”
The impact on states to implement and process applications for PUA, a newly created program, combined with the surge in traditional UI claims impacted states’ ability to process claims in a timely manner while maintaining program integrity. As states move to reopen and citizens resume job-search activities, it is paramount for these programs to keep pace with demand.
“We’ve been able to assist states by deploying nearly 2,650 work-from-home agents to support unemployment programs since March, with the majority of these programs launched in less than a week,” said Caswell. “These efforts were made possible because we were able to launch and scale turnkey, omnichannel citizen engagement through a virtualized platform.”