WILLFUL MISSTATEMENTS WHEN COLLECTING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

A break from Powers of Attorney, as this was a case presented to me and it highlights the importance of notifying the Department of Labor of all full-time and/or part-time employment you were engaged in, on the books or not, while you are applying for a benefits. They can find out so don't hide it. Section 594 of the Unemployment Insurance Law provides that "a claimant who has willfully made a false statement or representation to obtain any benefit ... shall forfeit benefits for at least the first four but not more than the first eighty effective days following discovery of such offense ...". It further provides that the claimant shall be deemed to have received benefits for such forfeited effective days", and that "A claimant shall refund all moneys received because of such false statement ...". Not every false statement subjects a claimant to the penalties provided in sub. sec. 594. A claimant may provide information (s)he believes to be true, which ultimately proves to be incorrect. In such instances no penalty applies. However, if it is established that the claimant was aware of the true situation, but gave false information, or purposely failed to fully disclose the facts, a determination of willful misrepresentation should be made. As the courts have held, "'willful' as used here does not imply a criminal intent to defraud but means 'knowingly' , 'intentionally' , 'deliberately' to make a false statement. (Matter of Vick, 12 AD 2d 120) Thus, for example, a claimant who places "N" in the calendar insert and certifies that "I did not work in employment or self-employment although (s)he knew (s)he had worked two days and received pay is subject to the penalty for willful misrepresentation notwithstanding that the claimant honestly misinterpreted the law and believed the work had no effect on benefit rights (Matter of Vick, 12 AD 2d 120) ". The following is a link to the Department of Labor Standards for making willful misrepresentations:
http://www.labor.state.ny.us/ui/aso/A710.htm#71021