FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Media Requests)
Contact: Rowan Hawthorne
Office of the Commissioner
(802) 272-4341
rowan.hawthorne@vermont.gov
MEDIA ADVISORY: System Outage Impacting Unemployment Insurance Claimants
Montpelier, Vt. – The Vermont Department of Labor is experiencing technical issues with the Unemployment Insurance (UI) claimant portal, which is the system some claimants use to file their weekly benefit claims and reopen existing claims. This issue is impacting a subset of the entire claimant population. Claimants experiencing this issue will find that they are unable to file a weekly claim for the benefit week of 12/03/23 – 12/09/23.
The technical difficulties involving the UI Claimant Portal are a direct result of the significant age of the existing system. As previously reported, the UI core system and the claimant portal are over 30 years old. The State and the Department are currently securing a vendor to update the entire UI system following an appropriation from the legislature in 2022 for $30 million.
Claimants experiencing this problem should monitor the UI claimant portal and the Department of Labor’s website for updates on the situation.
Claimants have until Friday at 4 pm each week to file their weekly benefit claim for the prior week. If the claimant portal issues are not resolved by then, the Department of Labor will extend the filing date to ensure claimants receive their benefits.
Members of the public should also be aware that this issue is causing a surge in calls to the UI Claimant Assistance Center, resulting in extreme wait times.
The Department of Labor and the Agency of Digital Services are working to address these issues as quickly as possible to ensure unemployed Vermonters have access to these crucial benefits.
Information about the Unemployment Insurance Program and this ongoing issue can be found at https://labor.vermont.gov.