BOSTON – Today, State Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s Office released an audit report of the Department of Unemployment Assistance, reviewing the period from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2024.
The Department of Unemployment Assistance is responsible for administering the Commonwealth’s unemployment insurance program. DUA provides eligible individuals with temporary income assistance while they search for new employment. DUA also determines and collects employer contributions, processes claims, establishes eligibility for benefits, and provides resources and reemployment services to claimants to aid in their job search.
In recent years, however, negative public attention and complaints over DUA’s dysfunction have plagued the system. According to a release, the State Auditor’s Office received complaints about unemployment claims stuck in a “pending” status for months, people waiting on hold with DUA’s call center for hours, or claimants unable to get in-person assistance.
The State Auditor’s Office released the following:
“Our audit found that DUA mismanaged the oversight of its call center’s performance by not establishing performance standards or monitoring procedures to ensure timely responses to claimant telephone inquiries, leading to significant call wait times. We found that more than half of the people using its call center were kept on hold for over 30 mins, with about half of those callers waiting for over an hour before they even spoke to an agent or got an automated voice prompt.
“We found that DUA collected some call data, but was not monitoring whether there were timely responses to phone inquiries, and did not have established standards for the call center staff. That meant it had no way of evaluating the data to be able to make decisions about how to more efficiently and effectively help people calling in.
“Furthermore, DUA violated state records retention requirements by not keeping call log data for three years. By not retaining call log data for the required amount of time, DUA limits its ability to review and evaluate its call-handling performance, identify trends, and take corrective action to improve its service. This also reduces accountability and oversight, making it difficult to fully evaluate DUA’s call-handling performance.
“Additionally, the audit found that DUA mismanaged complaints, impacting its ability to ensure timely and consistent service. DUA reported that every contact by a claimant – by telephone, text, email, mail, or DUA’s online portal – could indicate a potential problem with a claim but is treated as a generic correspondence by default. We recommend that DUA implement a centralized complaint-tracking system to record all contacts with claimants to better identify trends and issues to be able to address them.
“The audit also found that DUA failed to meet the federal Employment and Training Administration’s timeliness standards for claimants’ first benefit payments. Delays in first benefit payments cause undue financial stress to people who rely on unemployment insurance to pay everyday expenses. DUA risks losing federal funding for noncompliance, which would affect its ability to effectively administer unemployment benefits. Examining the root causes of this problem, our audit found that DUA was not identifying specific issues that were leading to these delays and implementing system alerts that would allow claimants to correct mistakes or fill in missing information before claims were submitted, thus avoiding the need for additional reviews and payment delays.
“Moreover, DUA violated state law by failing to provide in-person assistance at three of its regional offices – Lawrence, Brockton, and Springfield. In-person assistance was only available at the Boston Re-Employment Center, forcing claimants in other regional locations to travel to Boston for in-person resources and help with their job search, or leading them to call in for help. That, in and of itself, adds to the sheer volume of calls to DUA and further burdens the call center.
“Finally, our review of claims involving DUA’s Constituent Services Unit revealed at least 33,000 email exchanges between DUA and legislative offices where legislators had to reach out to DUA, on behalf of their constituents, to provide assistance obtaining benefits. The volume of these inquiries raises concerns regarding DUA’s ability to address claimant issues on its own, without legislative intervention. This also creates an equity concern, as people who are not aware that legislators can intervene, or do not have an established relationship with their elected officials, may be disadvantaged in obtaining services.”
“When hardworking people lose their jobs, unemployment insurance becomes a lifeline that allows them to continue to pay bills while they search for a new job,” said Auditor DiZoglio. “When those benefit payments are delayed, job search resources are unavailable, and complaints are not tracked and prioritized appropriately, the system fails job seekers and taxpayers alike. We strongly urge the Department of Unemployment Assistance to take our audit findings and recommendations seriously to help ensure that the system is working in a more equitable and efficient manner that better serves residents navigating unemployment and financial uncertainty surrounding it.”
Audit of the Department of Unemployment Assistance (September 21, 2026) | Mass.gov
