unemployment appeal

[bluecollarman]

What is the name of your state?

FLORIDA

i previously was working at a factory for almost 2 years and was laid off. That last day my boss called me into the office and said he was "letting me go" and gave me my last check and said he was "calling it a lay off" and that i could collect unemployment. He was a friend of the family and hired me, i worked there for over a year. because of several factors we have bumped heads in the ladder period of my employment. I worked hard and performed my duties diligently, but because of certain stresses from the economy and his own wife (in my opinion) could no longer afford me working there. i was laid off with no prior notice or letter of termination. I have been actively searching for a new job and collecting unemployment for over a year.

recently the unemployment office sent me a letter and disqualified me of my benefits on the claims that i quit my last job and was not laid off. I am also being notified weekly by mail that i must pay back several thousand dollars that i should not have recieved. I since then filed an appeal; and put in a request to the bar assoc to get free legal help.

If by any chance i cannot be represented for free by the bar i will be forced to represent myself. Is there any tips or heads up you can give me? If you can tell me anything i need to prepare myself? With unemployment as high as it is in florida i can safely assume this happens on a regular basis- do i have anything in my favor? thank you in advance for your time and any information you can send my way is greatly appreciated.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[commentator]

If you have been drawing unemployment for over a year, you have not only received your whole claim, but you have received at least 6 months of the federal extension. I am really having a hard time with what has happened here.

When you originally filed, did your employer give you a separation notice? (Lay off slip)? No letter of termination, you said, but you did go on line or by phone and file your claim, giving the claims taker the information about your separation, didn't you? Did you get a letter that said your claim was approved? (for so much money and so many weeks?)

I find it very hard to believe that this is a valid decision to deny you benefits, or try to declare you overpaid. But what you need to do is file at once for your appeal hearing and you have already done this. I am struggling to figure this out. Is this notice from the overpayment unit, or fraud unit, or whatever they call it, or is it from the appeals unit?

It may be a good thing if you can get someone in legal aid to assist you, but be sure, even if you can't that you follow up, file each appeal very timely.


In any case, I would want to ask why, after a year, in which you were drawing benefits, you have suddenly been declared to be ineligible. Point out to them that you certainly were told by your employer at the time of your separation that you were being laid off, that they could not afford to keep you. (...gave me my last check and said he was "calling it a lay off") And this is what you told the claims office when you filed for benefits. And you were approved!

Stress to any and everyone concerned that you DID NOT quit your job way back then, as you told them when you filed the claim. You were let go by the employer through no fault of your own and not by your choice. Unless the employer has a taped documentary of you quitting (and even then, I am having a real hard time figuring out how he could get to present it at this late date!) there should not be any valid reason you have been determined ineligible. You should be able to present this in an appeals hearing.

Do not bring up anything during any part of the process about not getting along with the employer or butting heads with him during the two years you worked there. Because if you were let go because of lack of work, not fired, if he was "calling it a lay off,"any prior disciplinary issues or disagreements you had with the boss will have nothing to do with this situation.

If I were you, I might try to take this up with my congressman or some other state official who could ask the unemployment office to pay some special attention to your case, because this is just too terribly hinky. To give someone unemployment, with full approval and a lack of work lay off, and then try to come back after a year and say you were overpaid based on your reason for leaving the employer in the first place....this is something they should have decided a long time ago. There was certainly no wrongdoing on your part in accepting these benefits.

 

[swalsh411]

There is missing information here, or the unemployment office messed up somehow. Can you post exactly what the letter said as to the reason(s) you are now supposedly denied and need to repay benefits? Have you contacted them and requested additional evidence/documents that would support their finding that you quit?

 

[Beth3]

bluecollarman, when the UC Division schedules your appeal hearing, the first thing you need to raise at the hearing is the timeliness of the challenge to your eligibility. If the UC Division determined fraud occurred, they can cut off your benefits at any time and pursue you for that. However it certainly seems that the challenge of eligibility came from your prior employer and there are specific time limits for an employer to question eligibility and that time period expired LONG ago. So you need to raise this issue at the hearing and challenge the timeliness of the employer bringing up this issue. The State needs to first rule on that before the rule on whether you quit or were laid off.