This App Aims To Help People Out Of Work Quickly File For Unemployment

As job loss continues due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and more and more people file for unemployment, a new feature on an app called DoNotPay aims to help with the complicated process that varies from state to state.

While the DoNotPay app has been used to help appeal parking tickets and avoid robocalls, it can now help you file for unemployment in any state through DoNotPay's Unemployment Insurance filing feature. To do so, the app will ask you to provide your social security number, copy of your driver's license or ID, a paycheck stub from your last employer, the name of your supervisor from your last employer, and bank information. The app's ChatBot will communicate with users to get all of the necessary information. The app will then file your claim via mail, fax, or on "off peak hours" so it goes through, as TODAY reported. If making a phone call is necessary in the filing process, a bot from the app will dial the office and remain on hold for you, forwarding the call once a representative comes on the line.

DoNotPay will ask for your banking or credit card information when signing up for an account as the app normally charges $3 a month, according to CNET. But with unemployment claims, DoNotPay CEO Joshua Browder told Fast Company users can request a waiver for the fee.

While some might be skeptical about using a third party website, Browder told TODAY that the app does not save your information once it files an unemployment claim. "We don't actually store any of the data ourselves," Browder said. "We inject it in the form it disappears."

As the coronavirus pandemic has put life on hold, over 22 million people in the United States are now unemployed, according to the Washington Post. And, in response, government websites and systems have become overwhelmed with unemployment claims, a problem the DoNotPay app aims to help with. "What we realized is the government systems are stuck in the 1960s," Browder told TODAY. "So we've built a new system." Learn more about the DoNotPay app here.

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