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The New Jersey labor department last week outlined some of the ways it is using a recent $11.25 million grant it received from the U.S. Department of Labor.

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) was one of 19 grantees across the country to receive the funding in September from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration.

The award will go toward advancing new features to the Unemployment Insurance (UI) systems, such as the check your claim status page to help claimants receive their benefits faster by being able to view, manage and resolve initial application, weekly certification and identity verification issues online. Those updates were designed in partnership with the New Jersey Office of Information Technology and the New Jersey Office of Innovation.

The NJDOL also noted that while filers will still receive email notifications regarding their claims, the new features aim to provide a more precise status as well as clear actions needed for resolution in a central location.

“Look at the data, a majority of delayed claims get held up toward the beginning of the process,” said Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo in a press release. “We identified the most common pieces keeping claims from moving forward, and we created tools to help claimants and our agents reach a resolution quicker so workers can get all the benefits they’re due in a more timely manner.”

“By putting what a claimant needs to know in one, easy-to-use location, we’re removing unnecessary obstacles to make the process as easy as possible so claimants can access their benefits,” said Gillian Gutierrez, senior advisor and director of Unemployment Insurance Modernization.

Officials say the funding allows the department to continue building on its ongoing efforts to upgrade the state’s outdated system, which was immensely strained during the pandemic, leading to much criticism.

Some notable improvements have included upgrading the weekly certification website to be mobile-friendly and meet 508c accessibility standards as well as the release of an enhanced and more simplified online application.

“Replacing a legacy system is a challenging process, especially one as complex as the Unemployment Insurance application,” said Sharon Pagano, assistant commissioner and chief information officer of the NJDOL’s Office of Information Management Services and Solutions. “It was important for us to evaluate how we could segment the task and provide small improvements with significant impact on the claimant experience, learning from the difficulties so many suffered throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The NJDOL was also recognized for some of its innovative, pandemic-era solutions to the unprecedented demand. The state was selected to serve, along with Arkansas, as a pilot state for modernization and improvement of the federal unemployment insurance system. Through webinars and online open-source toolkits, the New Jersey labor department has been sharing its progress with fellow state workforce agencies.

NJDOL says it will continue its efforts to improve the user experience with the release of a completely new UI claim application later this month.