HARRISBURG – Beginning Monday, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry will implement a strategy to more evenly distribute call volume to its UC service centers, providing a higher level of customer service to those receiving unemployment compensation (UC) benefits.
“Labor & Industry is taking a proactive approach to exploring and implementing a number of strategies that will further improve customer service and reduce overall call wait time,” Secretary of Labor & Industry Julia Hearthway said.
Labor & Industry’s data analysis has shown that throughout the year, UC service center call volume is significantly higher on Mondays than the rest of the week.
To address this issue, UC claimants will now be asked to contact the service centers on a specific day depending on the last digit of their Social Security numbers.
Claimants with a Social Security number ending in an odd number are asked to call the service centers on Monday. Those with a Social Security number ending in an even number are asked to call on Tuesday.
This initiative is expected to reduce busy signals and allow claimants faster access to UC representatives. The UC service centers will continue to accept calls from claimants with any Social Security number on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Should a claimant make contact with the UC service centers on a day that is not his or her assigned day, he or she will still receive service, but will be encouraged to follow the new system for future contact.
“By inviting claimants to call on a certain day based on their Social Security number we can offer faster, more efficient service to all claimants,” said Hearthway.
Similar approaches have been used by a number of other states and have proven to be very successful.
