Vermont Department of Labor

It is never a good time when you have to file for unemployment. My experience with the staff for the VT Dept of Labor has been exceptional on every occasion. Polite, helpful and pleasant. Sometimes the phone lines are busy. Yet I have with a little patience gotten thru. If an issue does arise that needs attention. The staff has walked me thru the system efficiently and effectively.

Just contaced DOL with questions about my Pandemic Unemployment Assistance application. Crystal picked up and was extremely helpful! She helped me navigate the website and find the link I had unsucessfully been searching for! Much more satisfactory experience than the ratings would suggest!

I just spoke with teala on the VERMONT dept of labor line. she was courteous and prompt very professional. I’m actually amazed great service and on task she is awesome.

Wonderful experience - in this age of not being able to get a "human" on the phone - Vermont continues to serve its residents with person to person customer service.

I have had nothing but excellent service and very courteous representatives! I want to thank all of you for all the help you have given me

Well you can't fault their follow up today I heard from 3 agents that had my phone number come across their system. All 3 were extremely friendly and wonderful. However I would have preferred to hear from the one I had left 2 voicemails and sent 4 emails to.

Saddled with tens of thousand of claims yet they somehow got my CARES ACT funds to be regardless. I realize many still are waiting for their benefits; it's coming people. I just got a direct deposit for the last 4 weeks.

Hard to get a person on the phone with questions about SUI acct setup. I'm always prompted to leave a message or send an email and then have to wait in the hopes of a call-back

Filed my claim back in December. Still haven't received any checks. They owe me for 3 weeks. All I hear when I call is it's being reviewed. They wouldn't tell what it's being reviewed for.what a joke....1/31..another hr on the phone...with u ll get paid when we get around to looking at it...I want a state job....

The worst state department of labor I have ever had the misfortune to work with. In disputed cases they will functionally work as defense counsel on behalf of your employer in order to deny any benefits. Almost going on 5 months now of fighting them for 2 weeks of unemployment I filed for in between jobs. Department of labor has argued that willful misconduct is the reason for the denial despite the fact that my former employer has clearly stated on record that there was no willful misconduct. I will be filing a complaint with any person or agency that has oversight or authority over this department.

Ive filed 29 weeks of benefits, so far after 8 months of more then half my income lost, then my job closed all due to Covid, ive received 3 weeks of benefits. The benefits began early November when I began filing in early MAY!! I have an official letter from Vt State clearly stating Im eligible for PUA yet I never was given 1 week of those benefits and craziest part of all this is everyone from local representatives, senators, 2 UI managers, the commissioners office and my local rep even had governors office agree I should of received these benefits yet I NEVER got them. The financial damage in my little area of existence has been devastating. It involves every single aspect of daily living from rent, utilities, car payments, car repairs and insurance, lost daycare spot, 2 eviction notices, repo threats of a car id own by now if I weren't behind, all the way down to getting winter clothes for myself and sons. I was told by 1 senator "ive slipped through the cracks" and if I contact my local representative he can get it fixed. Well he ignored me!! 3 times!! In fact in the past month everyone is ignoring me and I can think of only 1 reason, they don't want to pay out all those weeks of retroactive benefits. The claim line has been worthless with this issue since June as they apparently never got the memo and time after time they have no answers. Im treated as if I made up this letter. Im aware im nobody but im not delusional in thinking Ive been forgotten and my life ruined through no fault of my own this time. Im not delusional in thinking im owed something im not, or that I'm reading this clearly stated letter from Vt State to commissioners office way back on May 29th wrong. Its clear as a sunny day in May.
Im aware I'm just 1 of many going through this financial crisis and some have even reached a point worse then my situation but this all could of been avoided in my case if only they paid attention to their own directives. The only directive being followed now is letting me spiral further and slip further into the cracks and ignoring my pleas to fix this.
What I've received so far don't make up for 8 months of lost wages and my 9 year job shutting its doors for good. I loved my job and the people I worked with. I didn't ask for any of this. Im now left to my own devices and finding similar employment won't be easy with either no car or a broken down car and no daycare. Or worse come January ill have no home. I only want whats fair and this hasn't been fair from day 1 when I filed 7 long months ago.

Would not recommend. All of us contribute our hard earned money to unemployment. The guarantee is that the DOL will be there for us in the unfortunate event that we need them. We commit to them but unfortunately they don't commit to us. Consistent mismanagement and failures have led to hardships for Vermonters across our state. The most recent failure of MAILING our personal information out to the wrong addresses is the final straw. Just imagine if one of our Vermont businesses made the same gross error. I have no confidence in this branch of government and therefore have lost confidence in this entire administration. You should truly be ashamed for how you have failed Vermont and it's residents.

I worked for kkb and they closed abruptly without notice. I have filed for unemployment 3 weeks ago, filed 2 weekly claims and still NO benefits. Going on 4 weeks without pay now and am getting absolutely NO support from the department of labor!

Called them and they said they need to look into what is going on. A week later still no follow up.

Need to create a pin been trying for a week...Called over 600 times A day and 1000 times in 1 day 4-10-2020...today day hitting redial every time I got the message or a busy signal...then was told after taking to someone finally after hours that because “your social security number is not valid pleas call......sure you all are familiar that So I followed direction from operator and she told me to call around midnight that that message was a “glitch” because too many people are trying to create a pin.......BS...I’ve been trying to create a pin every Hour since I was told to call during and I quote “off hours” and got the same message your SSN Is not recognized please call........3332....I hope everyone is having better luck the. Everyone I’ve talked too......good much and stay healthy!!!

Took me over 6 weeks to get access MY UI that I PAID INTO for WORKING over half of my life, when COVID caused my layoff in July 2020. This is because DOL contracted this out of state. Now in February 2021, my tax filing is held hostage by DOL's incompetence- the DOL secretary needs to resign and new leadership needs to come in.