HARRISBURG, PA/PALM HARBOR, FL – (June 18, 2021) Geographic Solutions, in partnership with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is proud to announce a new, web-based unemployment compensation system known simply as the Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation System (benefits.uc.pa.gov). This project was a significant undertaking which sought to modernize Pennsylvania’s 40-year-old mainframe system. The new site, which is the country’s second largest modernized UI system, was launched for public use on June 8, 2021.
"Pennsylvania's Unemployment Compensation system took a giant leap forward, not just in terms of technology, but in the quality of service we are able to provide," said PA Department of Labor & Industry (L&I;) Acting Secretary Jennifer Berrier.
Participation in the new Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation (UC) system was quickly realized. During the first day the system was available for public use, more than 75,000 individuals successfully filed more than 141,000 claim weeks totaling over $59 million in benefits according to L&I.; Further highlighting the site’s public acceptance, it only took eight days to match the same number of unique users who were filing claims on the state’s legacy system.
“To put this into context,” said Acting Secretary Berrier, “the same number of people who have accessed the new system within the [first] 12 hours exceeds the same number of people who would have accessed the mainframe in an entire week pre-pandemic.”
The new system is designed to simplify and speed up the unemployment insurance claims process. Individuals filing claims and employers responding to claims are able to easily communicate with agency staff, upload documents, and have access to more self-service options to reduce the need to contact customer service. On the backend, Pennsylvania UC staff will utilize a streamlined claims process for the Commonwealth. Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) will continue to be captured and handled through Pennsylvania's Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Portal (pua.benefits.uc.pa.gov).
For more information regarding the Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation System, please email news@geosolinc.com.
Geographic Solutions is the nation’s leading provider of software solutions for workforce development, unemployment insurance, economic development, human services, corrections, labor market information, and education and training providers. The company has developed state-of-the-art systems for employment and workforce development agencies for more than 35 states and U.S. territories. Geographic Solutions’ software is currently being utilized by over 1,200 American Job Centers to serve more than 194 million individuals—reaching over 75% of the job seekers and employers in the country. For more information, visit www.geographicsolutions.com or call 727-786-7955.