State announces progress in managing increase in unemployment claims

OESC and Digital Transformation Show Progress in Managing Increase in Unemployment Claims  

OKLAHOMA CITY (April 24, 2020) – Governor Kevin Stitt’s Secretary of Digital Transformation, David Ostrowe, in partnership with the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC) and Executive Director Robin Roberson announced today the State agency has made headway in upgrading the state’s decades old system for filing unemployment claims.

“Since the first of April, the agency has processed over 160,000 claims, which is more than the agency traditionally processes in one full year,” said Secretary of Digital Transformation David Ostrowe. “The speed of processing these critical and timely benefits was made possible due to rapid and significant digital improvements made to the agency’s operations in partnership with OMES.”



The agency has also added more than 1,000 helpdesk agents to the call center in the last two weeks, and over 200 helpdesk agents were added beginning April 20 to assist in Tier 2 call backs to customers.

This addition to the workforce has allowed more than 71,000 Tier 2 claims to move through the process where they were once stalled. 

“All the credit goes to Executive Director Robin Roberson for her visionary leadership and business acumen that has brought 21st century practices to state government,” Ostrowe added. “I’ve witnessed dedicated state employees at OESC putting in long hours to help their fellow citizens during this unprecedented time. Through this partnership with Digital Transformation and OESC I’ve gotten to see the best of what our state can do when we are all focused on a mission to help our fellow Oklahomans.”

Oklahoma is one of the first states to fund Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and citizens are now able to apply for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance online. Applicants who have pre-applied will begin receiving notifications to complete their application.

Other enhancements and metrics:

• A new claims status process has been put in place to allow citizens to more easily check the status of their claim without having to contact the helpdesk. 
• A new weekly claims filing process has been deployed, this new process allows citizens to more easily submit their weekly claims attestation visit. 
• Over 160,000 new claims processed since April 1 through April 22.