“Madel, me despidieron del trabajo / Madel, I’ve been laid off.” These words marked the beginning of my mom's challenging journey with the unemployment insurance system.
In early 2020, as the pandemic took hold, my mom received a letter informing her of her layoff. Faced with financial uncertainty, she sought to apply for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for temporary stability. As a native Spanish speaker, she found the English-only application process daunting without my help. The shock of losing her job was compounded by hours of frustration navigating a complex system filled with jargon and technical terms. Without plain language translations in Spanish and a user-friendly process, understanding and completing the application was a daunting task for my mom.
Helping my mom revealed a broader issue–that can be found in other social benefit systems. Her struggles in accessing UI benefits are not unique. For eligible workers who prefer languages other than English, the rate of receiving UI benefits is up to 50% lower than for proficient English speakers. This disparity significantly impacts the nearly 20 million workers in the U.S. with limited English proficiency. Hispanic and Latino workers, like my mom, often work in industries more susceptible to economic instability, making them particularly vulnerable to job loss and in need of critical assistance.
The good news is that many state agencies are mobilizing to increase their capacity for multilingual support. Through our interactions with language access experts, government practitioners, and civic technologists, USDR has supported local and state agencies in expanding language accessibility. We have gathered best practices, identified challenges faced by claimants and administrators, and learned various ways that governments are tackling this benefits access issue.
Here’s where USDR has seen positive impact through its partners:
Los Angeles County and Montgomery County
Both counties are implementing internal processes, such as auditing public-facing documents and ensuring translations are up to date, to provide better language access resources and support across departments. By creating multilingual documentation and training staff on cultural competence, they can ensure that claimants receive the assistance they need in their preferred language. Montgomery County also has a full Translation Unit, an Executive Order, and have built this as a core Constituent Experience Standard (incorporating plain language). This proactive approach not only aids residents but also streamlines administrative processes, reducing errors and misunderstandings.
New Jersey Department of Labor
Partnering with community-based organizations and advocacy groups has helped New Jersey’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) reach underserved communities, including those with limited English proficiency. NJDOL conducted user research within these communities to gain invaluable insights that informed design decisions and the development of plain language support to improve the user experience with the State’s unemployment insurance system. This collaborative effort highlights the importance of involving community voices in the design and implementation of public services.
These approaches can help eliminate many systemic language barriers for beneficiaries like my mom. From a UI administrative perspective, fewer claimant errors lead to fewer overpayments, reduced call center loads, and fewer cases unnecessarily needing a human to work on them. Making the system easier to navigate in other languages builds trust with claimants while lowering administrative burden and cost.
Supporting my mom through her journey inspired me to take action. I served at USDR to lead UX research on language access across social benefits, aiming to help people like my mom. My mom did receive UI benefits, although it took a few weeks. I can’t imagine how long it would have taken, or if she would have succeeded at all, without my help. My biggest takeaway was realizing that, in times of uncertainty, those benefits were her only lifeline. Seeing how vital that support was to her survival underscored the absolute importance of ensuring these systems work well for all people, no matter what language they prefer.
Contact us if you would like support in your government to help make your services more accessible to residents in all languages.
