After Kentucky’s unemployment website crashed on Tuesday, a new set of guidelines have been issued on how to apply for unemployment benefits.
The unemployment website normally handles about 2,00 claims per week but on Tuesday, after bars and restaurants were ordered to stop in-person service, 9,000 claims were filed, overtaxing the system.
“We’re doing everything that we can to fix it — putting new procedures in place so that individuals who lost their job this week can make sure that they file claims on time,” said Josh Benton, deputy secretary of the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet.
Benton said his office has increased its staff to deal with unemployment claims by 45 individuals, increased service space five-fold, and will set up an alternative online application system Wednesday morning that people can use if the regular system crashes.
That alternative system will be available on the Kentucky Career Center website: https://kcc.ky.gov/career.
On Monday, Beshear directed state officials to begin waiving the state’s mandatory one week waiting period for unemployment benefits for people who lost their jobs because of the virus. He also eliminated the requirement for those people to search for work while they receive benefits.
The new procedure for applying for unemployment benefits:
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
