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The RIPL CARES System

A secure, elastic Unemployment Benefits claims system to quickly deliver Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits to workers

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a historic rate of job loss across the nation. In addition to providing additional funding and extensions for unemployment insurance overall, the CARES Act includes a new program called Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), which expands benefits to workers who were previously ineligible, including roughly 16 million Americans who are self-employed, independent contractors and freelancers. This sudden and dramatic increase in claims and the need to quickly stand up a new program is putting state unemployment processing systems under incredible strain, and the new rules for previously ineligible workers will only add to that.

Working with the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training and Amazon Web Services (AWS), Research Improving People’s Lives (RIPL) built, tested and deployed a tool and process — the RIPL CARES system — to accept claims applications, conduct verification, and pass prepared application data to the payment processing mainframe while routing incorrect data for efficient processing to provide benefits for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) to the gig workers, contract workers, self-employed individuals and small business owners of Rhode Island. The RIPL CARES system is cloud-based, secure, elastic with demand, and packaged with a how-to quick start guide. It is easily deployable in other states, and can be set up in one week. Depending on a state’s existing benefits system, minor modifications may be needed. You can view the system the way an applicant would at https://covidemergencyuibenefits.dlt.ri.gov/.

APPROACH

The goal of setting up the RIPL CARES benefits system is to get everyday Americans (specifically gig workers, contract workers, self-employed individuals and small business owners) their unemployment benefits as quickly as possible. The RIPL CARES strategy is to take as much work off state mainframe systems as possible so that they can do what they do well — which is accept clean data and process payments. We do this in three simple steps:  

    1. Establish a secure, cloud-based system on Amazon Web Services (AWS). RIPL has developed a package of AWS templates and a checklist and how-to-guide for states to set this up as part of our National Science Foundation-funded Future of Work Project. The AWS cloud is FedRAMP-compliant. The system is a secure cloud environment that can hold sensitive administrative data, and can be used by states to support reporting, insights, and science-as-service at high speed and volume so that they can make data-and-technology driven policy improvements.

    2. Set up the standalone secure web form to reliably collect a high volume of UI claims. All of the coding for the form is in the secure cloud environment. The form collects everything a state needs to process a claim. Data goes directly into the secure system. The webform uses Amazon Lambda serverless processes, allowing it to elastically increase intake and processing capacity as demand surges, and reduce computational load as demand declines. It has been tested at 17,000 claims per minute without crashing or slowing down.

    3. Adapt the script that takes the claim data, preprocesses it, and submits batch claims which the mainframe will accept (this step may vary based on the mainframe system each state uses). Claim payments are then made based on the COBOL mainframe system. Claims that are not eligible for PUA benefits are automatically separated and placed in files that state labor departments can process using standard regulations.

Partnership Opportunities

We have partnered with AWS to make the RIPL CARES solution available to states looking for a solution to deliver PUA benefits.

For states that would like to use this approach, we will provide:

    • A guide and templates for launching the service on AWS;
    • A “how to” guide on deploying the website on the cloud system;
    • The completed survey application, which collects all the required information from applicants to process a PUA claim and can be branded based on state guidelines;
    • All code needed to prepare claims for processing through a state mainframe UI system.

As PUA benefits applications are processed, states can handle errors through the normal processes because the files that come in would be considered clean in the normal process and/or throw an error in the normal process. However, the new system has controls on the front end to get clean data from applicants, which can be processed through the AS 400 or equivalent systems with minimal errors.

Because the system is built in a secure cloud environment, states can extend the system to analyze data from the benefits applications and receipt joined to other administrative data on earnings, employment and public assistance to understand how impacted communities are affected, help state leaders make decisions about economic recovery efforts and connect impacted populations to government support systems and training programs. RIPL has developed a set of analyses with Rhode Island data to help states learn about the economic impact of COVID-19 and PUA benefits on workers and their families. Policymakers can use these facts to prepare and plan for economic recovery with data and facts to guide them.

If your state is interested in implementing the RIPL CARES system, reach out to ST Mayer at [email protected]g to learn more about the RIPL CARES start-up package.

About RIPL

Research Improving People’s Lives (RIPL) is a non-profit, social impact, tech organization that works with governments to help them use data, science, and technology to improve policy and lives. We work with faculty research affiliates from top research universities across the country to provide powerful, scientific-grade insights at the speed of policy directly to policymakers so that they can positively impact lives, solve pressing social challenges, and build their own capacity to innovate and measure success going forward. To learn more about RIPL, visit www.ripl.org

Read "Governing Magazine" Article Here
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Read Wall Street Journal Article Here

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