Who to contact about an Alabama claim

This guide is independent of the Alabama Department of Workforce. Nobody here can look at your claim, change anything on it, or move a payment along, and there is no contact form on this site. The routes below are the ones the department publishes for Alabama claimants.

Help with a claim you have already filed

A question about a claim that is already open goes to 1-800-361-4524, and that line books a time rather than answering on the spot. Call after 5 p.m., Sunday through Thursday, for a callback the next day. The department allows one scheduled callback appointment a week, so keep your phone nearby for the whole of the day you are given, and if no appointment is free one evening, try again the next.

Which of the department's lines answers which question, from a new claim to a weekly certification to an appeal hearing, is set out on phone numbers and office locations, along with the Alabama Career Centers listed by city and the relay service for callers who need one.

Report fraud, or a claim filed in your name

Suspected unemployment fraud goes to the department through its fraud and abuse reporting page. Reported incidents are investigated, and you are not required to reveal your identity. There is a toll-free hotline for these reports as well, with hours of its own; its number sits beside what Alabama counts as fraud on denials, appeals, and overpayments.

Identity theft goes through the same page. Where a tax form has arrived for benefits you never drew, it sends you to the IRS pamphlet Identity Theft Information for Taxpayers.

Ask a question without calling

Claimant Portal is the department's secure self-service system for a benefits account. Signed in, you can read your claim and issue details, see what has been paid to you, and manage your profile, which settles a good many questions without a call at all.

There is also a written route. The department's Request/Provide Claim Information form puts a request in writing during a claim: you pick a subject from the status of a claim, a weekly certification problem, sending in documents the department has asked for, updating your personal information, a doctor's statement, PUA, or a debit card query, and you can attach scanned documents to it. The department is not allowed to give confidential claim information to anyone but the claimant, so it is your own claim you can ask about, not somebody else's.

The button above opens the department's own unemployment pages, and its unemployment FAQ answers the questions it fields most often. The ones that cross more than one guide, including the other help available after a layoff, are gathered on questions and answers.