UC claimants must weekly certify their continuing eligibility and affirm that they are still able and available to work, are actively searching for work, have not turned down any suitable work, and have not earned in excess of their WBA.
Registering for work with the LWC and subsequently reporting active job searches make out a prima facie showing that one is able and available for work.1 Claimants unable because of medical or other problems to perform a prior job may still be available for other work and often need help to fight erroneous agency disqualifications on this basis. The agency often seizes on any reference to a health issue, at any stage of a claim, to issue a disqualifying determination that the claimant is not able and available to work. The agency may also illegally disqualify a worker for an entire year rather than week by week. Claimants do not have to accept unsuitable work or work outside of their customary occupation, below the prevailing wage scale, or burdened with unreasonable conditions.
Many claimants erroneously stop filing weekly certifications after being disqualified, even while appealing the disqualification. Your clients may need reminding that, if they are still unemployed, able and available to work, and actively searching for work, they should continue to file weekly or they won’t receive UC for those weeks even if the disqualification is reversed. If they’ve missed too many weeks, they will have to “re-open” their claim before they can resume filing weekly.
The agency will rarely consider retroactive payment for weeks not contemporaneously certified. There is usually little chance of persuading the agency without good evidence of agency misrepresentation or other error (e.g., the agency’s internet claims system, which leaves the printing of its rules optional, allows for claimants unaware of their reporting or other requirements to remain uninformed and likely to make mistakes). However, a written agency refusal to back-date may be appealed like any other adverse determination.
- 1Chrysler Corp. v. Doyal, 352 So. 2d 322 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1977).