Unemployment benefits would be extended to certain relocating spouses of military members, and inmates participating in work-release programs would not be eligible for benefits upon release, under legislation filed by Gov. Charlie Baker. The new bill also permits the Department of Unemployment Assistance to communicate with claimants electronically, the same way that 80 percent of them apply for benefits.

The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development expects to save about $500,000 in postage costs and reinvest those funds in language services, while retaining the postal service as an option for customers who lack reasonable access or the ability to communicate through electronic means.

The bill, which Baker’s office describes as an effort to modernize state laws, also enables the department to recover fraudulently paid benefits more quickly by lifting the weekly reclamation percentage from 25 to 100 percent.

In his filing letter, Baker said the bill would correct laws that improperly deny benefits in some cases involving workers in military families who must leave work in order to join a family member serving in the United States armed forces who has been transferred outside of Massachusetts or to a location “beyond reasonable commuting distance.” The work release provision in the bill, Baker wrote, “will protect employers from the risk of higher unemployment assessments when they provide these important job training opportunities.”

Massachusetts employers are on track to be hit with higher unemployment insurance rates in the coming years. The per-employee assessment is scheduled to rise from $508 this year to $617 in 2018. Benefit payments of $449 million in the first quarter of 2017 were up about 3.6 percent from the same period in 2016.