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| Benefits Critical in Your Time of Need |
We know that you have lost your job, and we understand how important these benefits are to you.
WILLFUL MISCONDUCT OR VOLUNTARY QUIT CASES
Ordinarily, Pennsylvania unemployment benefits will be immediately be provided to you if, in your initial application to unemployment, you indicate that you were "laid off" or were the victim of a "reduction in force."
To the uninitiated, "laid off" sometimes means "terminated from employment without being given a satisfactory explanation as to why I was terminated." In many cases that we are seeing, people are saying they were "laid off" because they disagree with or do not fully understand the employer's reason for firing them. Since they are representing to Unemployment that they are laid off, they are immediately paid benefits.
When a claim is submitted via Pennsylvania's on-line application for unemployment compensation, it is critically important to understand the difference between a quit, a lay-off and a termination.
Submitting the Claimant's Application on Line - Quit, Termination, Lay-Off or Reduction in Force?
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| Make Sure You Complete the Application Accurately |
However, what many people do not know when they submit that initial application, is that even after benefits have been paid to the terminated employee, the Unemployment Service Center is conducting an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the end of the employment by asking the employer to provide information on that issue.
Click Here for our most comprehensive and up-to-date Post concerning the issues to be considered when applying for Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation Benefits.
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| Not Always Clear if it was a Quit or a Fire |
If the employer tells unemployment that you were terminated for willful misconduct or that you quit your job, the Service Center will send a questionnaire to you and your employer asking for written statements as to why the employment ended. These questionnaires is not a model of clarity, so you need to take care when responding.
Having received answers to from you and your former employer, the Service Center issues a Notice of Determination either granting or denying the benefits. If your claim is denied, you are permitted 15 days - and ONLY 15 days - to file an Appeal, in which case the matter will be scheduled for a Referee Hearing.
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| You MUST Appeal Within 15 Days |
WHAT TO DO AFTER YOU RECEIVE THE NOTICE OF DETERMINATION
If you received a Notice of Determination ("NOD") denying you unemployment compensation, you should immediately appeal the denial (you have only 15 days to do so). If your appeal is late, game over. Late appeals are almost never permitted.
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| 15 Days to Appeal!! |
When you file an appeal from an NOD, you need not say much. In fact, we tell our clients to simply state that "I disagree with the Determination."
If either you or the employer appeals the NOD, an Unemployment Hearing will be scheduled before a Referee (this Hearing usually takes place within 30 days of the appeal being filed). At that Unemployment Hearing, an Unemployment Referee will decide whether the employee has engaged in willful misconduct or, where a voluntary quit is involved, whether the quit was justified.
If the employee loses that hearing, then the Referee may also decide whether the employee was untruthful in his or her initial application. If so, it will be deemed an "at-fault overpayment" (in which case you will have to pay back the benefits you received immediately and penalties may be imposed) or whether it was a "non at-fault overpayment" (in which case you only have to pay back the benefits if, during the next three years, you apply for unemployment again).
Overpayments occur when, after you were initially granted benefits, the Service Center later determines that you are, in fact, ineligible for benefits. If, after benefits were initially granted, they are later denies, then Unemployment asks the employee to pay back the benefits that he or she has received prior to the determination.
If the Service Center deems that you were honest when you completed your initial application for benefits, then it will be deemed a "non at-fault overpayment." This usually occurs when you received benefits because your employer did not initially respond to the Service Center's request for information.
However, if Unemployment believes that the employee lied during their initial application (i.e where an employee stated he/she was "laid off" when in fact they knew they were fired for excessive absenteeism, or when they state they were fired even though they actually quit), it is deemed an "at fault overpayment," and penalties may be imposed.
Another less common area of dispute centers on whether the terminated employee was in fact a w-2 Employee versus a 1099 Independent Contractor (the independent contractor issue comes up much more frequently with post-unemployment job opportunities. Click Here for more on Independent Contractor cases in general).
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| Misclassification Common, and Usually Result of Company's Intentional Effort to Dodge Payment of Taxes and Benefits |
HERE
ARE SOME OTHER ARTICLES YOU MAY FIND WORTHWHILE:
Similarly, Independent Contractor disputes are decided by Referees at Unemployment Hearings.
HERE
ARE SOME OTHER LINKS YOU MAY FIND WORTHWHILE:
Should I Hire a
Lawyer for My Unemployment Appeal Hearing in Pennsylvania?
What Happens at an Unemployment Appeal
Hearing in Pennsylvania?
Philadelphia Area Lawyer's Quick Answers to the Most Common Pennsylvania Unemployment Questions
Pennsylvania Service Center for Unemployment Claims - Who Are These People, Anyway?
Pennsylvania
Unemployment Lawyer - Willful Misconduct Referee Hearings
Seven Things to Know
About The Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation Board of Review
I Want to Quit My Job
and Get Unemployment Benefits in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
Unemployment Determination of Financial Eligibility - PENNSYLVANIA UNEMPLOYMENT
LAWYERS
The Burden of Proof in
a Pennsylvania Unemployment Appeal Referee Hearing
What is My Base Year
Under Pennsylvania's Unemployment Law?
HOW DO I COMPLETE AN
APPLICATION FOR PENNSYLVANIA UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS - SOME KEY TIPS
SEVERANCE PAY,
SETTLEMENTS AND PENNSYLVANIA'S NEW UNEMPLOYMENT LAW
Forced to Resign: What Are My Rights if I am
Forced to Quit From My Job in Pennsylvania?
POOR PERFORMANCE IS NOT WILLFUL MISCONDUCT UNDER PENNSYLVANIA UNEMPLOYMENT LAW
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