Arkansas Department of Workforce Services Reviews

You can't get through by phone at all. It has been like this for over 4 months now. You have people waiting in line for hours because they won't answer their phones.

I have been waiting to receive my unemployment benefits since 8/14/2020. They keep saying since I receive a severance package from my job, My decision is still pending and they haven t given me any type of date to let me know if may be approved. And you ll be lucky to get anyone on the phone to talk to. That money was a big help but it has ran out and I have no type of resources and it s not like I haven t been looking for a job either. I understand The system is backed up but this is just ridiculous.

I am struggling to keep my head straight. I am ok healthy and my daughter is healthy. But I am not sure if I will keep it together and make it through it. I am new to this unemployment stuff I need help with my claim. I get different person every time I call and new get the same answers to the questions. Not sure if I will ever have a satisfactory word to say .. Saying that I was being audited. But I was just needing to give a detailed statement. Done that. I told them that I never worked for a company from Missouri. But they didn't fix It in the system.. now I am under disqualification and am suffering no reason to be loosing my mind. No reason except I don't have a dime to my name. Not sure if I will be able to stay afloat much longer. Please help me God bless you and your family come Jesus

Completely understaffed and rude employees and unwilling to help with benefits.

All hot lines are not replying, hanging up on you. The system is worst. Private company's customer service does way better job, and this is the government system we pay tax into???

Incredibly rude and entitled individuals - I am an employer trying to get information and I get talked to like I'm an idiot. Arkansas needs some serious help in this department - maybe start hiring some CUSTOMER SERVICE ORIENTED people!!!!!!!

HIGHLY RUDE, THEY TELL YOU ONE THING BUT TURN AROUND AND DOES SOMETHING TOTALLY DIFFERENT. It says under the site and the WORKERS says they close at 4:30 but you go in there at 4:00 and there saying thereCLOSED. Sounds like this place needs some major help on employees.

Why does the phone system automatically hang up on callers when the agents are too busy? Even the airlines will let you get in the phone queue and stay on hold for six hours, if that's what you choose to do. At least then you have a place in the line instead of randomly calling back and getting hung up on.

The absolute worst place I have ever had to deal with.

Worst place ever they could care less about Arkansas residents so don't depend on their help.what a disgrace

I have spent 3 hours on hold every day for over a week & have not been able to get through to anyone. Like others, I'm also having the issue where my Social Security number is already marked "in use" for a JobLink account, although I never made an account. I cannot retrieve the account information without calling, and of course I cannot get through to anyone on the phone. Hold music lasts for 15 minutes, then goes silent for 1-3 hours. Randomly your call will be disconnected without ever talking to anyone.

Arkansas DWS needs to be shut down and I mean it's the worst place in the nation they never answer the phone plus you have to go through all these problems just to get a small check.

extremely bad experience. Very rude people didn't want to help me at all! I am going to file a complaint with their state office

Very unprofessional very rude and I sat outside from 5a.m. till 11a.m. before I got in the door to have a lady spray a seat dripping wet and tell me she has a college education and she doesn't wipe seats

Call at7:58. The recording already started to make you call back. Dialed repeatedly to get in. Finally at 8:25, put on hold until 9:15. ADWS needs my ID to receive my benefits. Couldn't let me know this last week or Sunday.

I have called over 30 times today because I got locked out of unemployment claim, was hung up on by an automated system every time, and am now on hold with a loop of "all of our representatives are assisting other callers at this time, your call is very important to us, please stay on the line and your call will be handled in the order is was received" with no end in sight. based on other reviews everyone working here either needs to get fired or they need to hire more people.

Super upsetting! I spent 3 hours on hold and was hung up on twice. I know the second time she heard me start to talk before she hung up. It s like they just don t want to deal with you. As if everything hasn t been hard enough. They make it much harder.

It would be nice if someone would actually answer the phone or reply to a email!Kinda hard to resolve anything but hey that s our government!

Scamming my unemployment and I can t even get through to get help

I was on hold for 4 and a half hours... absolutely abysmal and astonishing how terrible the service is

I filed my claim on 4/4/20 and i haven't heard anything can someone please return my call.

my mom works there. she literally says she dont get paid enough and its bad enough

You can never get ahold of anyone! I waited on the phone for an almost 2 HOURS and the line went to busy! Absolutely ridiculous!

I have been calling since 9a, this morning, I have spoken with 3 different people and all I get is call this number call that number and when you call all those number you still get placed on hold in the same cue that all them told you to call or transferred you to. This is very frustrating when you have bills due and all they can do is put you on hold for 30 minutes at a time, and then you call back and still put on hold. I have literally sat in the office on university and watched 2-3 of their employees walk around with coffee talking to other employees while we are waiting 2-3 hours in line inside and outside. There should be a better system with this pandemic going on and our livelyhoods are at stake. This review will probably affect the out come of my benefits, but this is my vent.

I am an employer that was contacted by AR DWS for the first time. I responded and the claimant was disqualified from receiving benefits. Then I was contacted again. Exact same information requested by AR DWS. I gave them that information and more. I talked on the phone to an employee of AR DWS who called herself one of the only three "Adjudicators" in her office (she sounded proud of that). I asked her questions about how this could happen again, if the claimant had already been disqualified, and she accused me, repeatedly, of trying to get her to make a decision over the phone. I was not trying to get her to make a decision. I was simply trying to get information on the process. After accusing me for the fourth or fifth time, I simply asked her how I was supposed to get information on the process. She said there is a handbook online and that was it.
I received a letter today that says the claimant, that had been disqualified before, was now receiving the benefits and that they would let me know of any future charges. This employee of AR DWS was exceedingly rude to me and accused me of trying to "not follow the rules" instead of simply listening to my questions. She simply did not WANT to answer my questions. These people do not care about the citizens that they are supposed to serve...and we are the ones paying their salaries. Truly a JOKE. Typical government agency.
As a side note the claimant was also arrested with a crack pipe after being fired ...He really needs benefits from us working people.

"Your call is important to us, please remain on the line and your call will be answered in the order is was received." - 40 minutes later

In the current age where many people are left without jobs due to a pandemic, or local issues such as the damage to many buildings caused by a tornado, and this establishment makes the struggle even more difficult. A useless automated system that does not respond to the commands, I have sat on those audio menus for hours at a time continuously pressing the 2 key.
Now with recent surprise requirements, due to the state opening back up, everyone who is left jobless or can't work due to extreme health risks will likely be left without anyway to sustain themselves.
If you are going to introduce more requirements with this horrid system to solve these requirements give people more than an evening to do what they need to do.

Every call says hold then 40 minutes later it disconnects.. Been told 3 different things when I finally do get a person. I haven't had bills paid in 3 weeks. No money no food and all they say is keep claiming online at arknet..good luck

I'm trying to report someone fraudulent collecting unemployment in my name, but I can never reach an agent when I call.

Carl I hope you don't mind me using your review. You sure hit in on the head. So far, not too good. I'm getting their on-hold message and it's repeating CONSTANTLY...no break just the voice in my ear over and over and over. Please set up a professional on hold message that gives music or something other than a constant repetition of the same message.
How irritating but I sure know how important my message is to them, to them, to them, to them.......

S#IT SERVICE. I stayed on the phone for 45 min then the constant recording they have just stppped and hung the phone up on me. I tried every number they have on the site and I just keep getting hung up on..... i just needed To get the fax number.... which they don't have on the web site like what???

I wish I could give zero stars! I called right at 8:00am and they already have a message saying the call volume is too much and hangs up. Are you kidding me?

Zero stars! Cannot reach anyone in the fraud division...main phone# is answered by a master in apathy! When you re dealing with someone using your personal info in a fraudulent manner, you expect that the agency who can help you will treat these matters with some degree of urgency...the fraud hotline should be re-named the coldline as I ve left multiple voicemail to no avail. Starting next week I will be flooding the voicemail w/message after message until someone calls me back...

I have been calling for over a week and still haven't been able to speak with anyone. It keeps a telling me to call back at a later time.

Sat on hold for over forty minutes just trying to verify that the office received my paperwork that was faxed in on friday. I've emailed them twice trying to verify this information with no response. Once my phone call was connected with a live representative, I was hung up on. Very unprofessional.

Phone system sucks. The state office will tell you everyone is busy and hang up, the local office tells you to make a selection to speak with someone and then just keeps repeating everything. Typical Arkansas government at work.

I've been calling for 4 straight weeks and have yet to speak to anyone. I've emailed but have yet to get a answer. There is no way to move forward on my claim. This has been the most frustrating experience added to an already frustrating situation. Answer the phone already!!!

Hell would be nicer
The people are great but the system is broken.

I can t get anyone locally I called the 1-844 number and have been told 4 different things I filed July 10th the last person I talk to he was nice and actually looked through my stuff he also told me to call next week and ask to have my case push through because I have been waiting 12 weeks it keep saying I have not waited my waiting period it s really bad for me I m living out my car so my patience is very thin but what can you do when you can t get nobody from the office you have a claim through I was told they work 7 days a week that s not true well not here in Arkansas the only acknowledgment I get is my weekly letter saying keep filing a decision is pending I wish they could put they self in our shoes..

If a privately owned business was operated like this they would not be open for a month. This is totally ridiculous that they cant figure out how to answer the phone in a month. There is no 0 star

Why even have a contact page. Here try this number, none of them work and if you by chance get to be placed on hold don't worry it will hang up on you as well. Want to email them sorry there is a daily limit and you have already past it. How is this even called a business. Thought that required things to be accomplished.

Arkansas Workforce services sent out notices to our business. One had a phone number that had a mail box that was full and no other phone number. The other had no phone number to contact. After looking up the phone number on the internet I called them at 4:12PM, the phone was answered by a message that stated "We are closed at this time, our hours are 8AM until 4:30 PM. I called the next day, today, at 8:45 AM. The phone was answered by a machine again telling me how important my call was and please stay on the line as all of their representatives were assisting other callers at this time. . That message went into an endless loop and continued until 9:20 at which time I gave up. The reason I called in the first place is because they sent me a notice dated 12/31/17 that required a response within 30 days to which I responded within 8 days via fax. On 1/25/18 the second notice was a notice of agency decision telling me they rejected by response because they say they sent a notice dated 12/17/17. I don't know what they are doing but they certainly are not doing their job and do not want to be contacted. Typical Government agency.

Placed a claim on 6/10/2020. Never got an email saying I filed, and didn't know if I did it right or wrong. Decided to give a call three weeks later, got hung up on after waiting on hold for 2 and 1/2 hours. Gave a call last week, couldn't get ahold of anyone after several tries. Called two days ago to local office after filing says I need to answer questions at the local office. They proceeded to tell me that I was going to be transferred (Did not tell me what the questions were or anything). Connected over, following the instructions from the prev rep and got told "Sorry, let me transfer you." Thrown back into queue and still have no bloody idea of what I'm missing. This marks 6 weeks without getting any kind of information other than - keep filing weekly and keep waiting. I'm sorry but it's to the point that I can't keep waiting.

Also, to anyone reading reviews. I was told to press "1, 1." in the automated menu. It got me to a person but they "transferred" to the "correct" line. Hopefully you can deal with them since my patience has run out.

We have been dealing with the pandemic since March. It is now late July. There has been no improvement in the ability to contact the offices.
Shameful. People need help and can t get it. Our state has had months to get their act together. Why don t we fire the senior management, provide good service, and do the right thing. Fed up.

Poor experience. Poor workers. They act like it s such a burden to do their jobs

It s a lie. They basically want you to starve. It s not even their money, your employers paid that in for you to use.

UGH! They need an option on the automated line that allows you to leave your number for a call back, rather than making you just keep redialing!

Horrible service! Waited on the phone for 2hrs and 53 minutes... got hung up on the first time.. The second time still the same except it was 1hr 46 minutes got hung up on again... I've been trying to reach a representative for the last 4 days... this is utterly absurd! This should be addressed especially during this time.

I've been trying to reach someone for nearly 2 weeks now. FINALLY got put on hold instead of the automatic high claim volume posting, sat there for an hour and a half, then was hung up on! Come on people, I just need to know where the 502 form needs to be turned in at.

This is a poorly ran government service when it comes to the purpise for its existance (employment). Unpleasant attitudes, Phone directory malfunctions, mailboxes full and calls unreturned Could this have any bearing on the unemployment rate?

I have called them 80+ times. Was put on hold only 4 out of 80 of those times. After waiting on hold for over an hour, I am hung up on. These employees deserve to lose their job so that they can see what we are dealing with and how horrible their customer service abilities are. Not a good look, Arkansas.

Daryl Bassett Director and Arnell Willis Director Arkansas Workforce Investment Board are two Par Excellent Accomplishing Performance Assessments Professionals who are mastering the 2015 Todate Par Excellence Accomplishing Performance Assessments Asa Plans for Arkansas with Honor and Integrity and key components in Arkansas a Role Model 1st Quarter 21st Century Governance State and true Cabinet Members of the 46th Gubernatorial Administration of Governor Asa Hutchinson

Nobody answer the phone on this place .They put people on hold for hours .This place is a shame!completely trashy service .

Being an employer in the state of Arkansas and dealing with the Dept of Workforce Services is a JOKE!!!!!

The representative I spoke with was awesome!
Kanisha went way above and beyond to help me resolve my issue. She stayed in touch with me until everything was done.

Been trying for 2 weeks, every day they are open, to reach someone there. Finally, I got put on hold instead of immediately getting my call dropped due to high call volume. After 2 hours, my call gets dropped. Obviously, they either can't or don't want to help. Government can't be ran like this. Let's vote all the sitting representatives out in the coming elections. They are the ones that made this system and it's broken.

Been calling and calling, but have gotten please call back at a later time and hung up on every time. I call later same thing. They close at 4:30 pm which is inconvenient for those who can only get them after that time. This has Been going on for months.

Would have rather talked to satan himself. Absolutely RUDE and did not help me at all!!! Dismissed me asking for help and kept interrupting me to tell me she couldn t help me and then just put me to a hotline to wait ALL DAY because she didn t want to help me. absolutely terrible. y all need new employees

I'm giving this rating a 1 star because a 0 stars isn't an option. I've been on hold waiting on a representative to pick up the phone for over 45 minutes. This is ridiculous.

I tried to call my unemployment serveral times. They kept sayinh call volume is too high call back. Never got through....

I've been on hold for FOUR HOURS. Is anyone even there or will I be on hold until someone gets to the office tomorrow morning??

Just got on PUA and went to file a claim, the portion on their website to file a claim is not there, got a 404 error and told to look for it with a non existent search bar. Next i try to call the number the only thing i got was an automated message that told me the hours 7am-4PM " SEVEN DAYS A WEEK" and that "i should call back during those hours" doesn't matter what time i call at. Workforce services is closed on the weekends so that was a lie. This system is broken and no one seems to care.

Throw the whole system away. I began filing on the 11th of last month, due to being diagnosed with covid. Still have revived nothing, after waiting days & hours and talking to someone they tell me I ve done everything I m supposed to but it s just in review. I don t get it, I was forced to not go to work by the state, yet can t even rely on unemployment to work. A joke

I have been attempting to file a claim. Multiple times I have completed the data entry, I get to the page where it says processing claim.....and HOURS LATER I'm still on the same window waiting for it to process. I've sent email addressing this and no response at all. I am in another state so its not like I can drive to an actual office.

07/10/2020 Update: They sent me a letter saying job seeking requirements are returning and I need to create and update my profile on their Job Link site. I went to do this, and it said my SSN was already associated with an account. During the password recovery process, none of my security answers worked, odd given some of them have only one answer for me. That said, I attempted the alternate recovery option involving calling them for a reset code. The number listed goes to what sounds like a woman's personal voicemail and the inbox is full. No one answers on this weekday during business hours. So... What do I do?! Is this all one big joke to our state government? I think they want us to give up. Also, I tried calling my former town's number instead of Pulaski. It at least gave you two selections. I needed to press 2 to speak to a rep. Each time I pressed the number, it said, "Please make a selection." Also, from what I just learned, the number for the Little Rock office doesn't even go to the number for Job Services if you do actually speak to someone. They only redirect you to another useless voicemail. Failure. Absolute failure.

Original Post: The Covid-19 situation has opened my eyes to just how unprepared and unfair the process for obtaining assistance is in the state of Arkansas. No one in the desperate time of having no income should have to wait for weeks like this with no idea what is going on with their applications. Between yesterday and today, I had to call (literally) 50 times before being lucky enough to be placed on hold (the shortest amount of time I was on hold was 40 min, the longest being an hour and a half before the call was dropped) just able to speak to someone and then get zero answers. The communication is entirely one way, leaving the citizens in a state of limbo unable to plan their lives and terrified that after all this, they may not qualify. Not even a status update to tell me why my case is taking so long. The website looks and operates like it hasn't changed in 20 years. I know that they are under a lot of pressure right now, but having the kinks worked out of this system should have happened a long time before this. When your case is assigned to someone, you should have open contact with that person, especially on something so personal and vital as the only income option you may have at the moment. This needs to change now. What is it going to take to change it? Is anyone working on that? Who can I talk to about getting to have that open contact with my assigned agent? Do we need to get political with this? Write to the news stations? These are answers owed to the people by those at Arkansas DWS. Most of their employees may not be failing by any fault of their own, but their function is essential, and the undeniable fact that they are failing to help the people in any effective or efficient manner has to fall on someone's shoulders. Who is that person?

On hold for a total of 3hrs now...local offices closed...no way to get it completed online. Such a joke.

So far, not too good. I'm getting their on-hold message and it's repeating CONSTANTLY...no break just the voice in my ear over and over and over. Please set up a professional on hold message that gives music or something other than a constant repetition of the same message.
How irritating but I sure know how important my message is to them, to them, to them, to them.......ad infinitum.

I really wanted to give it 0 stars but couldn't. The people here are rude they talk at you and over you. Don't get me started on their automated services. You just get hung up on. Shameful really. I'm betting they're miserable people and that is why their service to our great State sucks.

I've been attempting to reach someone for months and still havent been helped. I call daily and immediately get hung up on, and never had the chance to even be put on hold. I've had friends that manage to contact someone, but they have met with rude employees who dont seem as eager to get their job done.

Just as many have stated. I have tried numerous times..:after going through the prompts, it hangs up.

I feel if we had some electronic communication from this office, giving the status of applications, the call center would not be overwhelmed as it is.

Currently, applicants are in limbo, trying to hold onto hope that help will arrive as promised, and this only adds to the frustrations of this pandemic. We were given a lifeline to help save us from the effects of the mandatory shutdown...the problem is, it appears we do not have the leadership in place with the capacity to use it.

I've called this number repeatedly trying to report suspicious activity but the automated recording just hangs up. Where do I go from here?

Extremely rude I told the worker I didn t understand and question and he literally told me just read it . I was like ohhh really that didn t even cross my mind and he walked away

I filled a claim three months ago and I still have not received a response saying they have approved my claim. Every time I file for my weekly claim it says that a decision has not been made. So I decide to call, but when I call the line is ALWAYS busy. I can never get through to someone to discuss my claim.