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Plain Language Makes Unemployment Letters Clearer and More Accessible

Case Study

Washington State Employment Security Department

Person working on laptop with the ESD website showing in a web browser
Man opening mail in front of his mailbox
Diagram showing project flow

The Problem

The Washington State Employment Security Department (ESD) works to increase economic security for Washingtonians by providing unemployment benefits, job training, and workforce data.  

State Bill 5193, requires ESD to use clear and understandable language in all communications. To meet these requirements, ESD asked Anthro-Tech to help them write clearer decision letters about people’s unemployment benefits. 

Specifically, they wanted us to simplify the letter drop-ins. These are templates that explain the decision, the reason for the decision, and what the person can do. Customers said the language in these drop-ins was confusing.  

The Solution

ESD gave us hundreds of letter drop-ins they send to customers. After three rounds of prioritization, including a content audit, we chose 90 letters from 750 options. These covered all relevant issues and language variations.  

To see how clear the letters were, we designed a customer survey. Participants represented various literacy levels, languages, educational backgrounds, and cognitive abilities. Their feedback showed that the letters were difficult to understand due to unclear explanations, confusing flow, harsh language, and too much jargon. Our content strategists and UX researchers recommended ways to make these communications more helpful for people applying for unemployment benefits. 

Example Letter Drop-in

In the following ESD letter drop-in, participants had trouble understanding the language and the reason for the decision. 

Drop-in

The law says moving to follow your spouse or domestic partner can be a good reason to quit your job. You need a good reason to quit and become eligible for benefits.

To be eligible:

  • You must keep your job for as long as reasonable. What is reasonable depends on the situation.
  • Your spouse or domestic partner must quit for a job outside your labor market area. Your new commute distance or time will be more than normal for your occupation.

We decided you didn't have a good reason for quitting your job because: You didn't stay at your job for as long as was reasonable before you moved. 

Survey Response

People didn’t know what reasonable meant and thought it was too vague or subjective. For example, they wanted to know who decides what's reasonable or how to follow up. One participant said:

The word ‘reasonable’ is not clarified, nor is there a resource for discovering what is reasonable for the situation at hand. Reasonable is a term that is entirely up for individual discretion, and does not provide any understanding of the decision being made.
Diagram showing the ESD project flow: Discovery, Content Audit, Findings, Comprehensive Survey

From discovery to a survey, Anthro-Tech created a review process that immediately helped ESD. 

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The Impact

Our work on ESD's confusing unemployment decision letters had an immediate effect. Using the survey data, ESD quickly began rewriting the decision letters. The new versions have better structure and formatting, less jargon, clearer cause-and-effect statements, more understandable explanations, and a less bureaucratic tone. These changes will make it simpler for people claiming unemployment benefits to understand the ESD’s decisions and the reasons for them.   

ESD now has practical recommendations and clear guidelines for improving their customer communications. We provided plain language tips along with specific examples and explanations to help their team create more understandable decision letter drop-ins. These recommendations include avoiding hypothetical situations, using friendly and caring language when denying claims, and placing the decision early in the letter.