The state\u2019s ancient unemployment insurance system, long criticized for moving at a snail\u2019s pace and its antiquated interface, is set to receive its first major overhaul in 50 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The state Department of Labor on Monday announced that starting Nov. 2 at 5 p.m., the state\u2019s unemployment insurance system will be down for nine to 12 days for a top-to-bottom update that will bring it into the 21st century. While it\u2019s down, New Yorkers won\u2019t be able to file new claims or certify weekly benefits, and the entire system will be unavailable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That means unemployed New Yorkers will also see a delay in receiving weekly benefits, but Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said the state will fulfill all back payments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have done meticulous planning and an incredible amount of testing (and will continue) all the way through up to the Nov. 2 date,\u201d Reardon told City & State. \u201cWe are very confident in this machine. \u2026 The thing that our customers need to know (is) that they will not lose benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n
The November overhaul is the culmination of a decade-long, $180 million project. The initial request for proposals went out in 2017, under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and the state awarded a contract<\/a> to Tata Consultancy Services for $57 million in 2019, though costs have increased since then. But Reardon said the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays in the process. The pandemic simultaneously exposed the extent of the unemployment insurance system\u2019s problems<\/a> as it was extensively strained<\/a> during that time. The negative attention resulted in some minor updates<\/a> and improvements, but nothing that compares to what the state is about to embark on.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reardon called the state\u2019s new system \u201cbespoke.\u201d She added that no other state has made upgrades of this magnitude. The changes include moving billions of files and switching over from a long-obsolete coding language in one single move. \u201cThis is built just for the state of New York, and it is the largest upgrade of an unemployment insurance system in the United States to date,\u201d Reardon said. \u201cWe are very proud of it. It is massive, and it is replacing a very old, over 50-year-old, system that still uses a key punch and still requires businesses to use a fax.\u201d<\/p>\n Two of the most significant upgrades, according to Reardon, will be the ability to interact with the unemployment insurance system on your smartphone and the addition of real-time claims status tracking. \u201cThe claim status is the No. 2 reason people call us,\u201d Reardon said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re really trying to do is reduce the need to actually call us, so that you can have a seamless operation.\u201d<\/p>\n The state Department of Labor has come under plenty of scrutiny for its unemployment insurance system, so there\u2019s a lot of pressure for the upgrade to go smoothly. Reardon expressed confidence that the rollout will go off without a hitch \u2013 but it\u2019s not just New Yorkers who will be keeping an eye on the massive endeavor.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s complex, it\u2019s expensive, it\u2019s not the sexiest thing to tell taxpayers that you\u2019re doing \u2013 but it is such a transformation,\u201d Reardon said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been (in) very close contact with a lot of the states, and they\u2019re anxious to see how this works, because they want to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The state\u2019s ancient unemployment insurance system, long criticized for moving at a snail\u2019s pace and its antiquated interface,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2781,1213,9,11,10,49,51,50,1413],"class_list":["post-359251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-albany-agenda","tag-labor","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}