Claimant for unemployment insurance benefits penalized for making willful misrepresentations to obtain benefits
2017 NY Slip Op 06489, Appellate Division, Third Department
Claimant, a part-time employee, certified that she had not earned more than $405 before taxes as a result of such employment. The Department of Labor, however, determined that Claimant was ineligible to receive unemployment benefits for specified weeks on the basis that she was not totally unemployed and her earnings exceeded the statutory limitation of $405 a week. As a result, Claimant was found to have received an over-payment of benefits and emergency benefits, which were recoverable. As a result, Claimant's right to receive future benefits was reduced by a specified number of effective days and the Department imposed specified monetary penalties on the basis that she made willful misrepresentations to obtain benefits.
Ultimately the Board reviewed the record and determined that Claimant had made a willful misrepresentations to obtain benefits for certain period of her unemployment and sustaining the charges imposed as the result of over-payments, the reductions of her right to receive certain payments in the future and the monetary penalties imposed that were associated with those misrespresented periods of unemployment. Claimant appealed.
The Appellate Division found that substantial evidence supports the Board's determination that Claimant made willful false statements to obtain certain benefits, explaining that "[i]t is well settled that the question of whether a claimant ha[s] made . . . willful misrepresentation[s] to obtain benefits is a factual issue for the Board to resolve and will be upheld if supported by substantial evidence." Significantly, the court observed that "there is no acceptable defense to making a false statement . . . and a claim that the misrepresentation was unintentional is not sufficient."
The court noted that the record shows that Claimant had received an unemployment insurance handbook that specified that she was eligible to receive partial benefits as a part-time worker if, among other things, she earned less than $405 in a week. It rejected her contention that she relied on a formula provided by a Department of Labor representative in order to calculate her weekly wage — rather than simply dividing the amount shown on her biweekly pay stub by two. The Appellate Division characterizing Claimant's argument as "unavailing," considering that "at no point did Claimant inform the representative that she was receiving biweekly pay stubs that showed that she was, in fact, earning amounts greater than $405 per week."
Finding that "[u]nder these circumstances, substantial evidence supports the Board's determination" that Claimant made willful misrepresentations, the Appellate Division affirmed the Board's decision.
The decision is posted on the Internet at:
http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2017/2017_06489.htm