New conditions by the Federal government require all states to pass legislation to punish employers (or their agent’s) for demonstrating a pattern of failure to adequately respond to state UI information requests. Employer responses to unemployment insurance claims is no longer a situation in which they can choose not to respond, but rather a requirement that must be performed by employers in order to be in compliance with these changes. This webinar serves to educate the participants in explaining how and why this action by the federal government occurred and how to respond to these new changes.

1. Avoiding Unwarranted
Scrutiny Against
Unemployment Insurance
Integrity Laws
January 22, 2015

2. Outline:
• Purpose of the Act
• Challenge for Employers
• Options for Employers

3. Poll
Ques.on
Have
you
ever
had
to
process
and
respond
to
an
Unemployment
Insurance
Claim?

4. What’s
going
on
• US Department of Labor’s
Unemployment Compensation
Integrity Act
• Signed by President Obama in 2010
• Was intended to address the issue
of employer indifference to the
program

5. What
to
expect
• States were required to pass laws
to punish employers who did not
respond to UI claims “adequately”
• States are requiring more
information to be provided and the
initial stage of the UI claims process

6. Non
relief
of
non-­‐charging
Benefits
already
paid
to
the
claimant
has
received
prior
to
a
UI
hearing
The
UI
Hearing
officers
reverse
a
previous
decision
by
the
deputy
which
earlier
allowed
benefits
Claimant ceases to receive
benefits for future weeks,
however the employer’s SUTA
account does not receive an
abatement of charging for
benefits of prior weeks.

7. Request
for
separa@on
informa@on
by
State
Agency
Adjudica@on
by
State
Deputy
Considera@on
by
a
UI
Hearing
Officer
Non-­‐relief
of
benefit
charges
Weeks
Paid
to
claimant
Future benefits from the
employer
Claimant
does not
need to
payback
benefits
$

8. What
triggered
this
law
• Unscrupulous
Third-­‐party-­‐Administrators
(TPA)
• State
Agencies
looking
for
a
scapegoat
for
shoddy
UI
decisions
• Circumvent
having
to
collect
overpayment

9. Areas
of
focus
Timeliness
Adequacy
PaNern

10. What
is
.mely?
Was
the
employer
late
in
responding
to
the
request
for
separa.on
informa.on
at
the
ini.al
stage?

11. What
is
adequate?
• Assortment
of
HR
documents
• Write-­‐ups,
warnings
• Copy
of
policies
• Responding
to
state
agency
calls

12. What
is
adequate
(cont.)
• Claimants are always provided the benefit of the
doubt
• If it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen
• Don’t over engineer it
• Focus on the direct-and-proximate cause
• Make it very clear that termination is the likely
next step
• Get witness statements
• Give the employee an opportunity to offer
comments on write ups
.

13. What
is
a
paNern
• States have different definition of a
“pattern of failure”
• Calendar year period
• In most states it is 2 or more
instances
• In some states it is only once
(ie: Hawaii)

14. Poll
Ques.on
Have
you
ever
responded
to
an
unemployment
insurance
claim
that
you
did
NOT
want
to
protest
the
claim?

15. Compliance
• The emphasis that employers need
to consider when approaching UI
claims management
• Cost-control is secondary

16. How
is
it
being
enforced?
• Currently, Texas has been the first to
develop enforcement procedures
• An issue of adequacy is automatically
set by the Texas Workforce
Commission when employer files an
appeal

17. Why?
By preventing the employer from
filing an appeal to an unfavorable
decision, a state agency does not
have to engage in collection efforts
on claimants who are on the losing
side of a UI appeal

18. • Employers
must
adopt
quality
HR
procedures
• Inconvenience
on
employers
• Documenta.on
will
be
required
• Uncompromising
deadlines
Challenges
for
employers

19. • Employers may no longer have the
option to “opt out” of the UI process
• It is the “gotcha” game
Challenges
for
employers
(cont)

20. Op.ons
for
employers
• Employers
will
now
have
to
be
much
more
selec.ve
when
considering
filing
an
appeal
• Only
appeal
unfavorable
decisions
in
which
the
employer
knows
that
they
have
provided
adequate
informa.on

21. • Cannot
include
addi.onal
documenta.on
for
the
UI
hearing
that
was
not
previously
included
in
the
ini.al
claim
response
• Ques.oning
the
appealing
of
decisions
that
were
awarded
to
the
claimant
and
the
employers
ini.al
response
was
shoddy
How
it
impacts
UI
claims
management

22. IMPORTANT!
We have to adopt a proactive
approach to UI claims
management:
• Hiring and interviewing (bad hiring
decision = another UI claim)
• Performance evaluations
• Documentation
• Terminations

23. What
all
this
means?
• UI claims management is shifting
away from a primary concern of cost
control to compliance
• If in compliance, than the rate will
reflect that change

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