Unemployment audit Illinois

[Verbal]

I was on unemployment in Illinois for six months last year until moving to colorado. During that time I was laid off from my job but still employed part time as a track coach. I was paid in two lump sums which I divided out over the thirteen week period of the season and put down every week. Now ides is claiming I should have claimed that amount over an eight week period, and wants all the benefits over that eight week period paid back. Any advice?

 

[Chyvan]

Any advice?

Submit an appeal request: "The determination dated mm/dd/yy is wrong. I want an appeal hearing scheduled."

Then after you get your hearing notice, submit your documents to support your position that you did everything correctly.

 

[cbg]

I must have missed the part where you called the unemployment office and asked them how you were supposed to proceed, instead of just assuming how you were to do it.

So, what documentation DO you have to verify that you were supposed to break your pay down over 13 weeks?

 

[commentator]

Though I have not seen your actual paperwork I suspect that IDES is not "claiming" anything. They first will just want to check on this. What you were supposed to do, (and it sounds like you did it exactly right, whether you called anyone to ask or not) was to report the pay in gross wages during the week you worked it REGARDLESS of when you were paid out the money for it. Even if it was salary, or paid in two lump sums or in one big sum at the end of the year, you figure out the hourly wage and the hours you worked and report that amount in each Sunday through Saturday weekly certification you made during that week.

You report it like, okay, I make approximately $14 per hour based on the total amount I make, hours worked times gross pay. I worked 8 hours this Sunday through Saturday unemployment week. So my gross pay for this week was $112. You report $112 that week. Sometime in there, you receive the pay for the work you did in two lump sums. Nobody gives a care when you're paid. Unemployment isn't an income based program. When they saw the tax information saying you were paid XXXX amount of money during the time you were receiving unemployment benefits, they would automatically do an investigation, because their computer system will automatically kick back the information about your receiving money for work while you were drawing unemployment. An investigator will speak to you, you will, if they request it, give them someone to contact to verify this information or show them how much you worked each week and how much you were paid in the two checks, and you'll not owe anything. You didn't commit fraud. Call them back, cooperate fully, and you'll be fine.

Incidentally, you were contacted by an investigator in the audit and fraud investigations people. You were NOT contacted by appeals. You do not need to call appeals or request an appeal at this time, you just need to talk to them. No overpayment has yet been determined until after they do the investigation, and may never be determined, so you do not need to appeal an overpayment yet.

You just, right now, need to contact the investigator who contacted you at the number they have provided. If you had committed fraud, you would be determined overpaid and they'd want all this money back eventually. That's when you appeal. And if you haven't committed fraud, they're going to determine that very quickly and not assess an overpayment of all your unemployment benefits. Call them. Work with them.

 

[Chyvan]

. . . last year until moving to colorado. Now ides is claiming. . . .

From the post, I saw it was sufficiently old enough and with the claimant having moved, I doubt very much that IDES called. I think they wrote a letter, that a decision was made "with the best available information," and that the letter has appeal rights.

Once you have appeal rights, you better appeal. Sure you can call and try to clear things up, but the clock is ticking on how long you have to submit your appeal request. If you succeed at getting someone else to take a second look at things, great, you can then withdraw your appeal because it's unnecessary. However, if you get the run around, you'll be glad you submitted your request while you had the chance.

 

[commentator]

I suspect they've not been trying to contact him much before now. If the person moved to Colorado without giving the U.I. people his new address, then how did he find out they were claiming anything? How'd they contact him now, or how did he find out they were contacting him? He had to get his forms from them to file his taxes for last year, and I bet he gave them his new address doing that.

As I said, what I suspect has happened is that when this individual has filled his income tax for last year, the results were cross matched with the unemployment system. This would be about the right time for this cross match to show up if he drew this unemployment and was paid this money last year sometime and has filed his taxes this year. And this could very well be his first contact from them, which usually occurs with an official letter on state seal stationary, not a phone call. This would not mean there has already been an overpayment decision made "with the best available information."

Overpayment decisions are under no time constraints as far as their having to make them quickly like benefit approval decisions. They can determine an overpayment years after the claim has been drawn. Therefore, the investigator isn't mandated to make a quick decision if they can't locate the former claimant immediately. They're going to keep pushing, keep looking for the person, seeking a response. The harder this becomes, the more likely they are to take it further, to consider this case for prosecution.

Yes, the first contact he received will say that there is a possible overpayment of $xxxxx, that this overpayment may result in blah blah blah, and if you wish to appeal this overpayment decision you may do so by contacting....That's what these types of contact letters are required to state. But nine times out of ten, there's also going to be a number for him to contact someone specific in the fraud and overpayment unit immediately. That's what you need to do right away. As I said, there may never be an overpayment decision. In this case, if the investigation reveals no fraud, which it doesn't sound as if it will, then there's no overpayment.

I]If you succeed at getting someone else to take a second look at things, great, you can then withdraw your appeal because it's unnecessary

[/I]Someone in the appeals unit is not going to "take a second look at things." They haven't had any first looks yet. If you want to submit an appeal as well as answer the fraud unit's inquiry, it would be okay, but you'd need to be real sure you do not try to bypass the correct unit, as the overpayment/fraud investigation unit is the one you are working with, not the regular appeals division.

No amount of filing a formal appeal of a decision with them is going to answer the fraud unit's request that you contact them and get the matter straightened out. And this is a situation where being coy, refusing to provide information until an actual hearing, or any type of shilly-shallying could get you prosecuted.