How do you appeal an Alabama unemployment determination?

Claimants and employers can both appeal a determination they believe is wrong, so a decision that went your way can still be appealed by a former employer. Your Notice of Determination says what was decided and carries the Document ID you need to appeal it, and the clock starts the day that notice goes out, not the day you open it.

The deadline to appeal, and how to count it

Which clock you are on depends on how the notice reached you.

They are calendar days, so weekends and holidays inside the period count against you. If the last day falls on a Saturday, a Sunday, a state holiday, or another day the office is closed, the period runs to the next business day.

How to file your appeal

An appeal has to be filed online, or put in writing and faxed, mailed, or delivered in person to the Hearings and Appeals Division. Filing online needs the Document ID from the top right corner of your Notice of Determination; if that letter has not reached you, your claim is still in adjudication and you cannot appeal yet.

A written notice of appeal has to carry:

• your name and address, or the employer's
• the claimant's Social Security number
• the grounds on which review is sought

Mail or hand deliver it to the Alabama Department of Workforce Hearing and Appeals Division, 50 N. Ripley Street, Montgomery, Alabama 36130. The division's fax is 334-956-5891, its telephone is 800-321-9323, and TTY is 800-548-2546. If your paperwork carries the name Alabama Department of Labor, that is the same agency: the department is now the Alabama Department of Workforce.

Keep filing your weekly certification for every week you are out of work while the appeal is open. If the decision goes your way, you are paid for the back weeks you certified for on time, and only those; the weekly certifications page has the deadlines. If benefits reach you while the appeal runs and the final decision says they should not have, those payments become an overpayment you must repay.

What happens at the hearing

An appeal hearing is an informal administrative proceeding. Each party gets to present its case, testimony is given under oath, and most hearings are held over the phone and last between half an hour and an hour. In-person hearings are granted only in rare circumstances.

Your case goes to an appeals tribunal: an officer or employee of the Department, appointed by the secretary. The tribunals are a separate division reporting to the secretary, apart from the divisions that decide claims, and nobody with an interest in a claim may hear it on appeal.

The Department mails a Notice of Unemployment Compensation Telephone Hearing to every interested party at their address of record, giving the time, the date, the issues to be addressed, and the name of the administrative hearing officer assigned. If you need special accommodations, for a physical restriction or any other reason, call the Hearings and Appeals Division on 1-800-321-9323 as soon as that notice arrives.

The hearing officer conducts the hearing and records it, and no other recording is permitted. What you can bring:

• Witnesses. Bring the people who have actual, first-hand knowledge of the facts in your case.
• Documents. Submit only evidence relevant to the issue under appeal, by mail to the address on your notice or by fax to 334-956-5882, before the hearing date. If you or a witness cannot attend, you may send an affidavit instead, setting out the facts in order with dates, places, and names; it has to reach the hearing officer before the hearing, and it carries less weight than testimony given under oath.
• A representative. An attorney is not necessary; you have the right to appoint any competent person or legal counsel.

If a witness will not appear voluntarily, call the Hearings and Appeals Division on 1-800-321-9323 and ask for a subpoena; documents can be subpoenaed too. Give the division a full name and address for the individual or the records custodian, far enough ahead of the hearing for the subpoena to be prepared, mailed, and delivered.

If you cannot appear at the time set, ask for a continuance, which may be granted for good reason; submit a dated, signed, and notarized written statement.

The written decision is usually mailed to every interested party within 10 business days of the hearing.

If you disagree with the hearing decision

That decision becomes final 15 days after notice of it is mailed to you, unless inside those days you apply to the Board of Appeals for permission to appeal. The Board is the second level, and it can grant or refuse your application.

Send a Board of Appeals request by fax to 334-956-7494, or file it through the Alabama Board of Appeals site.

If the Board does not grant your application within 10 days of filing, you may take the appeals tribunal's decision to the circuit court of the county where you live during the following 10 days.

A Board of Appeals decision becomes final 10 days after notice of it is mailed to the parties. Any party aggrieved by it can then seek judicial review, by filing a notice of appeal stating the grounds for review in the circuit court of the county where the claimant lives. Trial there is de novo: the case is heard fresh, not reviewed on the record.

Overpayments and how they are collected

An overpayment is benefit money you were paid and were not entitled to: paid while a condition for receiving benefits was not met, paid while you were disqualified, paid because a material fact was not disclosed or was misrepresented, whether or not that was deliberate, or paid for any other reason that left you with more than you were owed. You repay it in cash, by offset against future benefits, or by both.

The Department notifies you promptly of the overpayment determination and the reasons for it. An overpayment determination runs on a single clock rather than the two above. Unless you appeal within 15 calendar days of the date the notice was mailed to your last known address, the determination is final, and an appeal from it is limited to the overpayment issue alone. Being handed this notice in person does not shorten the time you have.

If the debt is unpaid 30 calendar days after the determination becomes final, the secretary proceeds to collect it with every civil action Alabama law allows.

While you are drawing benefits, each week is offset automatically against an ordinary overpayment until it is repaid. An overpayment due to fraud cannot be offset at all: no benefits are payable until it, the penalty, and the interest are repaid in cash or through income tax offsets. An unpaid overpayment may also be taken from future benefit payments and from state or federal income tax returns, with one limit: a federal tax refund can only be used to recover an overpayment caused by unreported earnings or fraud.

No action to enforce recovery or recoupment of an overpayment may begin more than 6 years after the date of the final overpayment determination.

Paying an overpayment back

The amount is due and payable 30 days after the decision becomes final.

You can pay online, or by personal check, money order, certified check, or cashier's check made payable to the Alabama Department of Workforce. Do not send cash in the mail. Print your name clearly on money orders and personal checks, with the last 4 digits of your Social Security number or your claimant ID number, and sign before mailing. Payments go to Benefit Payment Control, 50 N. Ripley Street, Montgomery, AL 36130.

If you cannot repay the balance, you may be eligible for a repayment plan under the agency's guidelines, on its own approved form. For questions about an overpayment or repayment options, contact Benefit Payment Control on (334) 956-4000, TTY 800-548-2546.

Where the overpayment is no fault of your own, you can ask for it to be waived. The request has to be in writing, on the department's waiver questionnaire, completed and returned to the department for review; the department decides. Questionnaires come from the Alabama Department of Workforce, 50 North Ripley Street, Montgomery, AL 36130. A waiver is never granted for fraud, for an overpayment that came out of an appeal reversal, for unreported earnings, or where you are found at fault for the overpayment.

Fraud: what counts, and what it costs

Fraud is a willful intent to make a false statement or a misrepresentation, or willfully failing to disclose a material fact, in order to obtain any benefit payment. More than one penalty can land on the same finding:

• A cut in benefits. Where the secretary finds a fraudulent misrepresentation was made to obtain benefits you were not entitled to, an amount can be deducted from the benefits you would otherwise draw this benefit year or next. It is not less than 4 times your weekly benefit amount, and not more than the maximum payable in a benefit year.
• A disqualification. It runs for the 52-week period immediately following the final date of the fraud determination, and until the fraud overpayment has been repaid in cash. A later act found to be fraud carries a 104-week period on the same terms.
• Interest and a penalty on the balance. A fraudulent overpayment balance gathers interest at 2 percent a month, added to the debt, and carries an additional minimum penalty of 15 percent.
• A criminal charge. Willfully making a false statement or failing to disclose a material fact to obtain benefits is a Class B felony where the aggregate amount involved exceeds $2,500, a Class C felony where it exceeds $500 without exceeding $2,500, and a Class A misdemeanor where it does not exceed $500. In place of fines, anyone found guilty pays restitution of at least the benefits fraudulently obtained.

To report someone drawing benefits while working, call the toll-free fraud hotline on 1-800-392-8019 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Reports are investigated, and you are not required to reveal your identity. They can also go through the Department's unemployment fraud and abuse reporting page.

That same page covers identity theft, including a tax form that arrives for benefits you never received, and points to the IRS pamphlet Identity Theft Information for Taxpayers. What the form itself shows is on the page about taxes on Alabama benefits.