Legislature Approves of Changes to the Unemployment System

Liz Gullett

Dec 15, 2017

This week, the Senate voted to approve of a package of House bills making several reforms to the state’s Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA). The reforms were developed by a workgroup comprised of business leaders, claimant advocates, and legislators from both parties. The UIA has been plagued with issues recently, including wrongly accusing thousands of Michigan residents of committing fraud. The goal of these proposals is to improve accountability and address the inefficiencies in the current unemployment system.

Changes in the legislation, includes:

Authority for the agency to reopen a fraud case with good cause within three years of it being filed
The UIA must work with Treasury, the Secretary of State, and the U.S. Postal Service to determine the last known address for claimants
Provide citizens accused of fraud access to an advocacy program
Prevents claimants from incurring interest in the case of an overpayment due to an agency error
Clarifies the eligibility for hardship waivers and the agency’s process for ruling on applications for the waiver

The legislation will be sent to Governor Rick Snyder for final approval.

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