R.I. benefit certifications go online

The R.I. Department of Labor and Training announced this week that unemployment-insurance recipients may now certify weekly benefits on the department’s Web site, www.dlt.ri.gov.
The Internet-based application gives unemployment-insurance claimants an alternative to certifying eligibility via the telephone-based TeleServe automated payment system. Each week, claimants must certify their eligibility for unemployment insurance in order to receive benefits. Prior to the implementation of the Internet application, customers’ only option for certifying was to call DLT.
“Each week, more than 85 percent of our claimants would call the phone system between 12:01 am Saturday evening to 6:00 a.m. Monday morning to certify for payment,” Raymond Filippone, assistant director of Income Support at the department, said in a news release. “By implementing TeleServe online, we hope to make it easier for customers to certify and to take some of the pressure off the telephones.”
Unlike phone-based certification, which is only available after business hours, Internet-based certification is available 20 hours each weekday and 24 hours on weekends, the department said. The Internet-based application can accept an unlimited number of certifications at any given time.
Online certification is available weekdays from 7:01 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and from 9:01 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.; and weekends from 12:01 a.m. to midnight.
Recipients can still use the department’s telephone-based TeleServe system by calling (401) 243-9100 or (401) 243-9600.
In order to use Internet-based certification, a claimant must first obtain a unique Personal Identification Number (PIN). Any claimant who has used the phone-based system to certify for payment already has a registered PIN and does not need to register for a new one, the department said. New claimants can designate a PIN number by calling TeleServe.
The $175,000 Internet-based certification application is funded through Unemployment Insurance Administration funding made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the department said. The online TeleServe application was adapted from the phone-based application by First Data Corporation, and was implemented in collaboration with the R.I. Department of Administration’s Division of Information Technology.
In Rhode Island, an unemployment insurance claimant can receive a maximum of 99 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits – 26 weeks through regular unemployment insurance, 53 weeks through federal-extended benefits and 20 weeks through state-extended benefits.
During the first week of December, DLT disbursed more than $11 million in payments through its regular Unemployment Insurance, federal-extended and state-extended benefits programs.
A headline on an earlier version of this article was unclear about what part of the unemployment insurance process was now online; claims have been possible to file online for a number of years, but the certification process is now possible, as well.