Cost Control & Unemployment Claims Management

According to the United States Department of Labor, the total number of unemployment claims has reached an unimaginable count of 8,014,919. This is not good news for employers. The costs associated with unemployment compensation continues to increase and employers are trying to do whatever they can to keep these costs to a minimum.

We all understand that there are issues beyond our control that cause unemployment such as a health issue, mental instability, inability to perform the required duties for a job, lack of education, transportation issues, company lay offs and cutbacks or just a simple lack of job openings in your city. The economy continues to struggle and with unemployment on the rise, it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Keep in mind that the unemployment figures do not include all of the people who can no longer claim unemployment benefits because they have claimed it for too long already. It would be cold-hearted to deny unemployment benefits to people who have become unemployed for reasons that they could not control.

If you have a business and are trying to figure out if your unemployment claims cost control efforts have been a success, you should ask yourself a couple of questions.


Have you pursued all of the possible contestable issues?

Contestable issues includes a situation where an employee agrees to voluntary quit the job because they were involved in willful misconduct.

If all of the possible contestable issues are not being pursued against unemployment claims, you should ask yourself why. Claim forms that are piling up and not being taken care of on time will result in the loss of the right to respond to or dispute the unemployment claim. If there was any misconduct involved, it is important to inform the Human Resources Department of the situation so they can make a record of the incident. Unemployment claims should be handled in a consistent manner by keeping all of the information in one central location. If you fail to contest the unemployment claims, it will negatively affect your unemployment costs. Pursuing as many contestable issues as you can will help keep your unemployment costs down to a minimum.

Are you wining most of the claims which you are contesting?

If your answer is “no”, it is important to find out why you are not winning most claim disputes. You need to make sure that you have all of the necessary information readily available to help you win your claim dispute. It may be easier to win contested claims involving voluntary job resignations, but if you are not winning other claim disputes that involve discharging an employee for misconduct then you should seek professional assistance to put together a more solid dispute against the former employee as to why they should not receive unemployment benefits.

If you have kept good records and documented all incidents in a timely manner, then you should have all the information that is needed to win a claim dispute. This information must be presented to the State.

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