Tag Archives: claim

Responding to Unemployment Claims

Responding to unemployment claims is crucial to lowering an employer’s unemployment costs.  Even if the claim filed is a layoff or a non-contestable claim, it is still critical that these claims get responded to.  Often, employers do not realize that non-response to claims can cause loss of appeal rights in the future – should the reason for separation change.

It’s important to understand the unique unemployment laws and deadlines associated with different states.  Many businesses operate in more than one state, and in many cases a certain state may have a 10 or 15 day deadline to respond to a claim.  A good baseline rule is to respond to any claim, regardless of the state, within 7 days to ensure compliance among all states.

When it comes down the reason for separation, it is important that documentation is included to help back up an employer’s response.  The state is always looking for write ups, warnings, policies, acknowledgements, and signed resignation letters.  It is hard for employers to win a discharge case without having sufficient documentation to back up their story.

There are many different forms associated with a single unemployment claim that gets filed.  For example, you may receive an initial form from the local office, a relief of charge form, and an additional questionnaire – all for the same claimant!  It’s critical that all these forms are responded to by the deadline listed on the form (many times different forms have different deadlines) along with sufficient documentation to back up the case.

Dunn Corporate Resources gives clients the ability to process unemployment claims all in one centralized dashboard – and all replies are reviewed by our unemployment experts before going back to the state to ensure the highest probability of winning a claim.  For a demo of our online system, contact one of our friendly claims managers – we will be happy to discuss our solutions with you.

Unemployment Online

In today’s world everything revolves around technology. Information is transferred over the web in all types of industries. With the ongoing progress being made to streamline work by utilizing online capabilities, one would think that unemployment claims would be processed online rather than by paper claim forms, however the government isn’t as quick as we would like.

There has been a push to create a centralized online unemployment claims processing system which is known as SIDES E-Response for employers, however this can be extremely tedious and cumbersome. To be honest, it is probably easier to just fill out the paper claim form and fax it back to the state.

At Dunn Corporate Resources, we’ve created an online system the allows for ease of processing unemployment information AND the ability to access customized reported for full transparency. Our claims management system gives our clients the absolute easiest way to communicate separations and receive real time updates on unemployment claims.

Simply the easiest and most organized way to respond to claims:

Once a claim is responded to, it goes straight to the claim archives. Clients can access claim archives to see exactly how a claim was responded to, what type of documentation was attached to the claim, and when the claim was sent.

For a comprehensive demo of the full capabilities of the Dunn Corporate Resources online system, feel free to contact us today! One of our experienced reps will be happy to answer any questions that you have.

UI Tip – Document, Document, Document!

Unemployment Tip – Document, Document, Document!

Unemployment claims can be difficult to win, especially if the issue at hand is a discharge.  Each state can be a little different in terms of laws and regulations, however they all require one thing in common: documentation. These days, it isn’t enough just to tell the state that someone was “discharged for violating policy.” In fact, it probably isn’t enough to provide a simple write up either!

States are now requiring that employers provide sufficient documentation to prove that the claimant was fully aware of grounds for discharge and deliberately did not follow the rules. The type of documentation that the state is looking for is:

  • A write up of the final incident signed by the claimant and a witness.
  • Any prior write ups, whether they are related to the final incident or not.
  • A well thought out corrective action plan to help resolve the problem at hand.
  • A copy of the specific policy violated.
  • A signed acknowledgement of the company rules/policy/handbook.

Sometimes it can be tough to get an employee to sign a write up, especially when they don’t agree. So here’s an idea: Have the employee write that they disagree, and then have them sign it. Now there is sufficient evidence that a claimant was warned AND that they acknowledged the warning, even though they didn’t agree with it. This type of backup documentation can go a long way, especially if an unemployment claim gets appealed to a hearing.

Keeping these warnings in a chronological order, along with the policies and acknowledgement will absolutely help win an unemployment claim, not to mention an EEOC or Civil Rights claim should one arise.

For more helpful tips on how to proactively fight unemployment claims, take a look at our blog or contact us today!