Long wait for help on R.I. unemployment phones lines
6:21 PM Fri, Nov 21, 2008 | Permalink
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By Lynn Arditi If you call the state unemployment division to speak with a customer service representative you can expect to wait, on average, 100 minutes. Yes, that's 1 hour and 40 minutes, said Raymond A. Filippone, assistant director, income support for the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training. Rhode Island's rising unemployment rate and the state and federal extended benefits programs are driving up the caseload of unemployment claims, Filippone said. Rhode Island's unemployment rate in October jumped to 9.3 percent, the highest since 1983. The ranks of the unemployed last month swelled to 52,900, from 29,700 in October of last year, state data shows. For quicker service, people with questions about their unemployment benefits are advised to contact the division by e-mail from the division's web site at http://www.dlt.ri.gov. The division will respond back within 72 hours, said Filippone. 
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That 140 minutes doesn't take into account the 60 you spend before trying to get through the busy signal...
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Sounds like another "Don" concept. Cut the staff to pencil thin and work them till they finally say enough is enough. This works out in "Don's" grand scheme where with enough delays in payment, he can take monies from this account and move it to another account. Way to go "Don". When will you learn that this private sector methodology does not work for the private sector nor will it work in the public sector. Twenty years of you "gotta do more with less" is enough already.
Come up with a new plan "Don" or simply resign and be remembered as the most ineffectual governor ever to wreck State of Rhode Island programs that do serve important roles for those in need and those taxpayers that need regulatory protection. Think it over "Don". Simply get on the WPRO station in the morning have a set of nads to admit that you have failed and that with these failings, as in the private sector, you have been asked to leave.
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