from The Journal News
By JERRY GLEESON
August 31, 2006

The unemployment line in New York state has been a thing of the past for four years, replaced by telephone and Internet services that allow the newly jobless to register for benefits without making a trip to a Labor Department office.

Now the unemployment check is about to become extinct as well. Next month the Labor Department will begin paying jobless benefits via bank accounts that the unemployed will be able to access by using something much like a debit card.

This month the state began mailing the cards to the 500,000 people out of work in New York. The cards are due to be activated Sept. 10, and the checks will no longer be issued.

The Labor Department hopes to save $4 million annually with the new system while providing people with greater access to benefits, spokesman Robert Lillpopp said. Not everyone who's out of work has a bank at which they can deposit or cash checks, and check-cashing services can charge often-onerous fees.

The new card provides no-fee service at more than 38,000 JPMorganChase and AllPoint ATMs in the United States, nearly 5,000 MasterCard member bank branches in the state, and millions of locations displaying the MasterCard logo. The card can be used as a debit card, the only difference being the user is not allowed to deposit funds into the account. MasterCard is based in Purchase.

The unemployed in New York are entitled to a weekly benefit of $405 dollars, with the average benefit weighing in at $278, Lillpopp said. The registration system hasn't changed under the debit card program. It will still take a week to certify a registration for unemployment benefits, assuming the former employer doesn't challenge it, plus an additional week to claim the first payment and receive the card in the mail from JPMorganChase, Lillpopp said.

In subsequent weeks, however, the benefits will be deposited in the account as quickly as 24 hours following an approved claim. The Labor Department plans to have a direct deposit program in effect by late fall for benefit recipients with bank accounts.

Claimants will have 24-hour access to their accounts via telephone and the Internet to review balances and transaction histories, and to change their security code number.