How do you appeal an unemployment determination in New Jersey?

The Division of Unemployment Insurance decides your claim in writing, and your appeal rights are printed on every determination it sends, including one that says you have to pay benefits back. Your former employer can appeal a determination on your claim as well, and if the employer wins, you may have to repay all or part of what you have already been paid.

How long you have to appeal

You have 21 calendar days to appeal an Unemployment Insurance determination, counted from the mailing date printed on it rather than the day it reached you. Weekends and holidays count toward the 21, with one exception at the end: if the last day falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the appeal is accepted on the next business day. A determination nobody appeals in time becomes final, and from then on it controls your right to benefits.

The Appeal Tribunal is the first appellate level inside the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, and it decides both Unemployment Insurance and Temporary Disability Insurance disputes. Everything below is about an unemployment determination, and disability benefits covers the disability side.

Every deadline on an unemployment claim runs from the date a decision was mailed, with one exception for employers.

How to file your appeal

The Division points claimants to its online appeal application, where you fill in the form and then confirm it on a second screen.

You can also appeal by letter. Write to the Appeal Tribunal, PO Box 907, Trenton, NJ 08625, and give your Social Security number, the determination you are appealing, and your grounds for disagreeing with it.

What happens at the hearing

The Appeal Tribunal schedules a hearing, notifies everyone with an interest in the case, and takes testimony under oath to build a record of what happened. You register for the hearing in advance, and it is held either in person or by telephone.

If the appeal turns on why you stopped working, your former employer is notified and can take part. You may speak for yourself, or be represented at your own expense by a lawyer. If you cannot afford one, you can ask to be represented by one of the free legal advisory services in the community, and someone who is not a lawyer may represent you as long as they charge you nothing. You may ask for a postponement if you give advance notice, ask your former employer to produce documents about your eligibility, and ask for statements from witnesses who saw what happened.

If you miss an in-person hearing, or cannot be reached for a telephone one, the Appeal Tribunal can rule against you, and it can dismiss the appeal altogether when the person who filed it does not take part.

Keep claiming while your appeal is open

Claim your weekly benefits for every week you are waiting, exactly as you did before the determination arrived. Certifying is what gives you credit for those weeks if the appeal succeeds. Report to any appointment the Division schedules, too, because missing one can cost you benefits even if you win the appeal. The weekly step itself is on claiming weekly benefits.

If the Appeal Tribunal decides against you

The examiner's written decision comes by mail, with the facts it found, the law it applied, and its conclusion. You then have 20 days to appeal in writing to the Board of Review, which is the highest appellate level inside the Department.

The Board of Review normally holds no hearing of its own. It reads the record made at your Appeal Tribunal hearing and decides from that, so a detailed written argument is your whole case. It can affirm the Appeal Tribunal's decision, modify it, or reverse it.

A Board of Review decision is the Department's last word. After it, you have 45 days from the mailing date to ask a court to review the decision.

If you are told you were overpaid

Unemployment benefits you were not entitled to must be repaid. The determination notice gives the reason and the amount, and it says how the overpayment has been classified.

• Non-fraud, such as certifying for the wrong week by accident. Interest applies once a Certificate of Debt has been filed.
• Fraud, such as going back to work and carrying on certifying without reporting the wages. Fines and interest apply, and an overpayment classed as fraud cannot be reclassified later as an agency error.

Either class can be collected by any means necessary, which includes intercepting your tax refunds and taking the money out of future unemployment benefits.

If you get an overpayment notice, there are a few ways to respond.

• Pay it. The Department's overpayments page links to its payment site, which takes a bank account or a credit card, where fees may apply. To spread the money out, call the Division of Fraud Prevention and Risk Management at 609-376-5945 and ask for a payment plan.
• Appeal it. Follow the appeal instructions printed on the overpayment notice, and do it promptly, because these appeals are time sensitive.
• Ask for a waiver.

New Jersey may waive an overpayment that happened through no fault of your own, meaning you did not misrepresent or withhold any facts to get the benefits. You request one on the waiver page of your online account, the Department emails you an application, and you submit it by the deadline that email gives. Requests are weighed case by case, and a refusal can itself be appealed.

What counts as fraud

The Division treats each of these as unemployment fraud:

• Knowingly leaving earnings off a certification, including pay you have not received yet.
• Giving an untrue reason for why you stopped working.
• Hiding or lying about any fact that would reduce your benefit or end it.
• Using someone else's identity to claim or collect benefits.
• Letting someone else certify in your place.
• Not telling the Division you have gone back to work.

A fraud finding can bring criminal prosecution and imprisonment, severe fines and penalties, garnishment of your state or federal income tax refunds, and denial of unemployment benefits in the future. The benefits still have to be repaid, with interest and penalties on top.

To report fraud, the Division has online forms, one for a claim filed in your name by somebody else and one for a person collecting benefits while working, or you can call the Division of Fraud Prevention and Risk Management at 609-376-5945 and select option 4. You do not have to give your name when you are reporting somebody else. A 1099-G that arrives for benefits you never received points at the same theft, and taxes on unemployment covers what to do about it.