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Florida Unemployment

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ktdidd

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

My husband's employment was terminated 06/15/09, a victim of the economy. He applied for unemployment & claimed his weeks as instructed on 07/07, 07/21, 08/04, 08/18. He's due to claim weeks again tomorrow. On 07/30, he received a denial for the 07/07 claim (the determination for which was "Reporting requirements not met, the law requires ineligibility from 06/21/09."). The "Employer Chargeability" section is blank so they are not fighting his claim. Every attempt to contact the unemployment office results in either a busy signal or a message to call back due to high call volume. He earned some money from a freelance writing job, which he reported when he claimed weeks, but it was less than the amount of unemployment compensation to which he's entitled. He can earn $52 before unemployment is affected. He should be paid $162 after his income is deducted (Income = $165 - $52 = $113; Unemployment = $275 - $113 = $162) We're not sure if this is the reason for the denial or something else. He's appealed and has a hearing scheduled 09/11. He has received NO money for the claims that weren't denied.

What does "reporting requirements not met" mean and when will he receive money for the other claims?
 


commentator

Senior Member
Okay, in the first place, your husband can too get in if he keeps trying. He should begin trying to call at 7:00am, and call continuously for as long as he can. By two or three in the afternoon, there is not a prayer of being put in queue to talk to someone that day. But he can, with persistence, get in and speak to a human being, and he needs to do this. He also needs to certify again for the next round of weeks when he was supposed to do it.

But did your husband receive severance or vacation pay after he left his job? Did he report these? Was a decision made as to whether this money was includable? In the first place, did he actually receive any communication that said his claim was approved? If things were as they should have been, and he had covered wages in the last eighteen months to set up a claim, he should have received something that told him how much he was qualified for and for how many weeks. This, not the "employer chargeability" section on his denial letter is the decider. The employer is not stopping this claim, there have been issues with his actual monetary eligiblity or in the certification process that have stopped the claim, and these cannot be resolved to you bite the bullet and hold the line long enough to talk to someone.

Let's see. He has received one letter that you mention. It is a denial, saying the reporting requirements were not met, correct? And he sent this back in to try to appeal, right? Yes, he really desperately needs to talk to someone. If he simply cannot, with lots and lots of effort, speak with someone on the phone in lines, he should look at the website and try to reach "Unemployment Technical Support" which should be listed in the departmental phone book. He should also be looking at writing or emailing a request to the department that someone CALL HIM back and provide him with some assistance. http://www.floridajobs.org/applications/contactus/default.aspx is a place to try emailing.

Okay, next thing, the money he earned was reported wrong also. It is to be GROSS wages that are reported, not after take-outs, and this would probably have stopped his claim, and he should have called the line, not tried to do this on the internet and talked to a live person.
The calculation of earnings and benefits he is entitled to is not done as you did it on your post, the computer system does them automatically, but if you read the instructions, it clearly states that the wages earned are to be reported before deductions. If these were more than his claim, or if he marked that he quit a job or was fired from a job this week, it would automatically stop his claim, and it must be re-opened by him, by telephone.

SO he really doesn't need an appeals hearing. He needs to get a claim adjustment by talking to a live person. The appeals tribunal is NOT who can fix these messed up weeks. He may not qualify for all the weeks. The first week he filed for may be a waiting week. There may be severance or retirement or vacation pay or other issues. But you cannot get this matter resolved by waiting till 9/11 for an appeals hearing. HE must start calling, holding, trying again and again, until he talks to someone who can sit down with him (not you, but him) and figure out which weeks he is eligible for. If he gets this resolved, and keeps filing for weeks, he should be back paid eventually and will get on some sort of regular schedule of being paid each time after he files his weeks.
 
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pattytx

Senior Member
My state isn't Florida (in fact, it hasn't even been Texas for a very long time now), but my state has extended phone hours to something like 9.5 or 10 hours a day, later a couple of days a week and even limited hours on Saturdays and Sundays. :eek:

OP, your husband should find out what the hours are and, as commentator suggested, start calling immediately in the morning. I've also found that calling about an hour before shut down time has worked for me, too.
 

ktdidd

Junior Member
Commentator,

1. As you so "politely" suggest, he has tried calling persistently.
2. As you so "politely" suggest, he has sent emails, none of which have been answered.
3. He has contacted the local unemployment office and was told they are unable to assist him.
4. As you so "politely" suggest, he continues to claim his weeks (see dates outlined in original post).
5. His severance and vacation pay were included in his last check dated 06/18/09. His termination date was 06/15 and he was not eligible to begin filing for unemployment until 07/07, so when he began filing for unemployment, he was no longer receiving weekly wages. Therefore, as you so "politely" suggest, he could not claim the vacation or severance since they were paid before he began filing.
6. I only mentioned the "Employer Chargeability" section in case somebody mentioned the employer fighting the claim as the reason for the denial. As you so "politely" suggest, I realize they aren't the reason he was denied (see original post).
7. As you so "politely" suggest, he did read the instructions and the gross amount of $165 is the amount he reported (see original post – I did not indicate the amount he reported, you just assumed it was incorrect – I included the calculation just to show what he should've been paid once the computer system did the calculation). I am just speculating whether or not this is the reason for the denial.
8. A specific reason on the Notice of Determination (instead of “Reportiing requirements not met”) would possibly reduce the high call volume. Unfortunately, "Reporting requirements not met" is very vague and needs clarification to prevent him from possibly filing incorrectly again (which is the reason he filed an appeal).
9. None of this explains why he hasn't received any info or payment for the four subsequent claims (see dates outlined in original post).

Has anybody had experience with a similar denial?
 
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eerelations

Senior Member
commentator went way above and beyond to provide you with a detailed, informative and yes, very polite response (commentator is always polite), and as a result, I cannot for the life of me fathom your sarcasm and rudeness. If you think that what commentator has said is incorrect or inadequate, then by all means say so, but leave out the snideness. By replying to commentator - one of the nicest, kindest, most UI-knowledgeable people here! - this way, all you've done is make yourself look like a nasty ungrateful b****.
 

ktdidd

Junior Member
I did not feel Commentator's responses were incorrect or inadequate. Instead, I must have misinterpreted Commentator's tone because I felt he/she insinuated my husband has not been making enough effort, not read directions, not followed directions, etc. My husband has persistently called and gotten the same "high call volume" message repeatedly after trying for hours on several different days. He is not alone - we've heard the same story from many people and read the same thing in our newspaper and online.

Commentator stated, "He also needs to certify again for the next round of weeks when he was supposed to do it," which ignores the dates I listed in the original post of when he claimed his weeks. He is claiming his weeks per the paper we receive from the unemployment office.

Additionally, the GROSS wages and "read the instructions" comment seemed offensive, real or perceived (my husband did read the instructions and did report gross wages).

So if my tone was rude, it is in response to the way in which Commentator responded by using all caps and what I perceived as errant implications, whether he/she meant to or not. I apologize if this is not the case. My husband and I have both been very careful to read all of the instructions and have made sure all of his answers are correct before submitting any claims. I don't mean to be a nasty, ungrateful b****. This is just very frustrating and I was hoping someone who had the same experience could shed a little light.
 
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eerelations

Senior Member
Well, if someone else with similar experiences was all you wanted you should have said so in the first place so that commentator wouldn't have wasted her time responding to you. Commentator is not someone with experiences similar to your husband's, commentator is just someone with many years' experience working as a UI officer. I expect commentator is happy to hear that you're not interested in such a high level of expertise, as she won't have to bother responding to your questions anymore, and can devote her time to people interested in hearing from a real expert.
 

commentator

Senior Member
Thank you, eerelations, you are very nice to say good things about me:)

To the OP, yes, I apologise for my perceived rudeness or bluntness or the feeling you might have gotten that I was "blowing you off," so to speak. It's partly my frustration with the fact that the call in systems in these southeastern states do not work well. They have been overwhelmed by the workload in this economy, and they weren't working well before.

It would be so much nicer if we still had actual offices manned by real people who could help claimants in person. But we were federally mandated to go to the call center system. The local office cannot help you. Unfortunately, that is exactly true.

If I had access to Florida's claim system I could see exactly where the glitch in your husband's claim had occurred, almost immediately, and thus figure out exactly how to resolve it. That is really all you need, someone who is knowledgeable to look at this claim. You don't need to talk to someone who is in the same boat, or someone who had the same problem.

So many times when confronted with "I can't get in by phone" we pin the person down, and find that they have been making sporadic efforts to get in, and have hung up after holding for a while and becoming frustrated. My husband did a call in once, it took from Monday morning till Thursday afternoon and an hour and a half on hold. But it was for something he could NOT do on line. There are a lot of aspects of unemployment like that in Florida.

So many people, these days, want to fix everything and do all their business on line. Well, in the state systems, which were set up in the '80's and in many cases have not been updated much due to lack of funding, that just is not possible.

Your husband needs to make weekly certifications for each week that passes. If he did not receive a form in the mail to do this on, since he has not received a check, he needs to go on line and attempt to certify for the weeks that are passing there. It may not accept them until he has spoken with someone and his claim is fixed. But he needs to be making that "good faith effort" because even if the claim is stopped,no weekly certs= no money paid for those weeks, ever. THey will try to do what is called, "re-open" his claim, which means start it up as of now. He has to specifically make the request that his claim be backdated, stating that he has made a good faith effort to call in and resolve this problem each week. The longer it gets to be, the harder it is to get them to do this. He may have to actually file an appeal to do this. But if he has attempted a certification, there will be a record of this in the system, and this will help the backpay to happen.

To reiterate, there was something wrong with the claim for benefits and weekly certifications that your husband has made on line. Whether the claim was denied in the first place, (which is what I was asking, did you ever receive a monetary determination that his claim was approved and set up?) or whether the problem was with some aspect of the information received in the weekly certifications, such as misreporting of wages or severance or the answer to one or another of the questions....there was a problem. Until you talk to a human being who can look at that and determine what the problem was, no fix, no money.

Even if the notice you received had been so specific that it told you exactly why you were not receiving money, in the clearest of terms why there was a problem with the claim, you still would not have the power to fix it on line. Email that address I gave you and request that someone call you. Call your state representative and ask their office to have someone from the unemployment system call you. Do something to get in.

Talking to someone with similar experiences is sort of like the blind men seeing the elephant. Everyone is going to see a different aspect of the system based on their unique situation and make their assertions from that point of view. Who you need to talk to is an "elephant tender" in the state of Florida system.
 
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ktdidd

Junior Member
Thank you so much Commentator and my apologies for being snippy. We've been getting the run around, it seems, from every agency with which we deal (unemployment, COBRA, etc), so I unfairly directed my frustration at you. We did receive a monetary determination approval and started claiming weeks on 07/07 (the date specified on the approval). He's been claiming every 2 weeks since even though he's received no money. Hopefully, once this is straightened out, the subsequent weeks will be paid for. I'm just hoping whatever the problem is with the first claim will not be wrong on subsequent claims. We will keep calling, emailing and waiting for the 09/11 hearing, all the while claiming weeks like clockwork.

I really do appreciate the time and effort it took for you to respond to my posts and thank you for forgiving my attitude.
 

GonzoFL

Member
ktdidd:

Here are some back-line phone contacts with Florida AWI. These are real people who answer their own phone(if not...leave a message,they will call you back).
877-846-8770
ex1493
ex5293
ex5296

Florida AWI has been plagued with phone problems and computer errors. Hopefully you will read this thread before the 11th. I'm sure one of the rep's. I have mentioned above can get this issue rectified. Good luck.
 
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Dixsn1

Junior Member
Unemployment check never came!

On Aug. 31, I went to my online account and claimed the weeks of 8/22 and 8/31, filled out the usual questions, etc. Yes, I've been looking for work and so forth. A few days later, I search the mail for my check. It never came.

After going back to Agency for Workforce Innovation - Unemplyment Compensation and checking my claim information, it stated that the last claim I made was on 8/18 and a check was mailed one business day later. But it's supposed to say I claimed on 8/31, but the page was never updated since my last claim. It's like I never claimed or something. I know I did. Is this a glitch in the system? Anyone else having problems?
 

GonzoFL

Member
Dixsn1:

Florida AWI has been having computer issues since they were first installed in 1972.:rolleyes: Call the number I provided in the previous thread first thing Monday morning(8:00 am) Don't give up on the calling,your issue with AWI will not resolve itself. If you can't get to a live rep using one of the three extensions,leave a message you will get called back. Good luck my fellow unemployed Floridian.
 
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