Evaluation of the Impact of Telephone Initial Claims Filing.

Within the past decade, nearly all states have changed, or have made plans to change, the process for filing initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. Formerly, to file a UI claim, workers who became unemployed had to appear in person at a local UI office. Under the new procedures, known as telephone initial claims (TIC) filing or remote claims filing, states allow or require workers to file their UI initial claims by telephone. States are making this change primarily to reduce administrative costs and/or improve customer service, but conversion to telephone filing may have other effects as well. For example, the number of initial claims may increase because filing is easier. Some policymakers have expressed concern that TIC filing could adversely affect the ability of states to monitor the integrity of the claims-taking process and that other aspects of the process of delivering UI- or reemployment-related services to claimants may be adversely affected. In addition, some policymakers have questioned the viability of telephone filing as use of the internet for filing continues to grow.