Your Name
Your Address
City, State, Zip Code
Case Number
DATE
State Unemployment Compensation Board
Address
City, State, Zip Code
RE: Complaint for the delay in handling my claim for unemployment benefits
To Whom It May Concern:
Claimant applied for unemployment benefits with an effective date of April, [Enter day], 2021. Claimant made the said filing because his employer terminated his employment for his failure do something that would have put his nursing license in jeopardy.
Accordingly, after duly meeting all requirements, Claimant qualified for eight (8) weeks’ compensation. However, the whole process was troublesome because Claimant was given a lot of misleading and unclear information by the State Department. Notably, Claimant’s account kept displaying that his payment was withheld despite Claimant’s incessant calls for action. Claimant went ahead to ask the agency what he needed to do to get his claim settled. However, the agency kept informing him that they were reviewing his claim and that they needed time to look at the documents from both parties to the claim.
Pursuant to 20 CFR 602, Subpart C, States are given the responsibility to ensure Unemployment Insurance is administered in an accountable way. It follows; there is a statutory expectation of States to offer quality unemployment insurance services efficiently. Further, Section 6013(A) of Appendix A to 20 CFR 602, provides that the State agency is required to obtain promptly and prior to a determination of an individual’s right to benefits, such facts pertaining thereto as will be sufficient reasonably to insure the payment of benefits when due. Section 6013(A)(4) thereof proceeds to state categorically that “information must be obtained promptly so that the payment of benefits is not unduly delayed.” (Emphasis added).
Claimant cannot over emphasize the need to effect benefit payments when due. In Unemployment Compensation Board of Review v. Selby, 25 Pa. Commw. 273, 278, 360 A.2d 254, 257 (1976), it was said that “[t]he Social Security Act provisions that unemployment compensation be paid in full when due, therefore, have emphasized the importance of timely payment of benefits rather than the amount of benefits to be paid.” (Emphasis added). Therefore, the State Department should ensure prompt investigation and approval of benefit claims.
It is worth noting that denying Claimant prompt investigation and approval of his claim amounts to a violation of Claimant’s due process rights. The court in Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 332, 96 S.Ct. 893 (1976) held in that regard that “[p]rocedural due process imposes constraints on governmental decision which deprive individuals of liberty’ or ‘property’ interests within the meaning of the Due Process Clause.” Unemployment benefits are considered to be property interests. This was held in Wilkinson v. Abrams, 627 F.2d 664 (3rd Cir. 1980), where the Court state that “State statutes providing for the payment of unemployment compensation benefits create in the claimants for those benefits property interests protected by due process.” It can also be said that denying Claimant prompt attention to his claim amounts to a denial of his property interests.
In light of the foregoing, it generally takes about two weeks for the benefit payments to start, in which period the State Department gives employers a time period of between 10-15 days to respond to Claimant’s claim. However, it is fifteen (15) weeks later since Claimant made the request when the agency had him fill a portion, which they claimed was in their possession and that they had just submitted it to my employer.
It is surprising that the State Department initially started Claimant in the third step of the application process without having him pass through the first two steps. And that they waited until fifteen weeks when they now intend to take Claimant back to the first step.
Such incidences cast doubt to the integrity and competence of the staff in the State Department. Accordingly, their actions and/or inactions have caused Claimant financial harm since he has not yet received his unemployment benefits, which are overdue.
Therefore Claimant requests that you make good the delay and expedite on the processing and/or release of his unemployment benefits.
Yours Sincerely,
___________________
Name
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