People looking for help with unemployment insurance in Kansas over the next few years may get better service thanks to a new law to overhaul the state's beleaguered unemployment system.Gov. Laura Kelly signed new bipartisan legislation Monday to allow lawmakers more oversight of the Kansas Department of Labor. The law will push for modernization to the state's four-decade-old computer mainframe to payout unemployment claims. It also orders an audit of how many fraudulent payments drew down the state's unemployment trust fund during the COVID-19 pandemic."KDOL is moving into a good place right now," said Amber Shultz, Kansas' labor secretary. "I really just look forward to working with everyone to bring a long overdue modernization effort to our unemployment system."The bill, in part:creates a legislative council to modernize KDOL's IT system. orders a review of fraud during the pandemic credits employers for any payments determined to be fraud raises the minimum threshold for receiving a maximum of 20 weeks of UI benefits from a three-month seasonally adjusted average unemployment rate of 4.5% to a rate of 5% for weeks beginning Sept. 5, 2021. clarifies that individuals of identity theft are not liable for fraudulent UI claims made using their stolen identity Still, KMBC 9 Investigates continues to receive tips from people experiencing long wait times and few answers regarding unemployment claims. Specifically, the department has struggled to payout federal unemployment programs it had to manually program into its old computer system.For instance, 17,031 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims are still in the determination process as of April 22. PUA is a federal unemployment program implemented for self-employed workers, independent contractors, and gig workers. The program was also a major target of fraud during the fall of 2020. According to KDOL statistics, 13,771 claims are more than 21 days behind for the PUA program as the department is asking people to upload documents for verification.Department leaders have also brought on surge support to answer phone calls, but said that it takes time to get them trained correctly.'We're working tirelessly to make sure that people get paid," Shultz said. "We hear your frustrations. It's something that we just are relentlessly pursuing."