NEW YORK UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE - CERTIFICATION WHEN ABROAD

Now unemployed and receiving benefits, some claimants will take a vacation - and some take vacations or travel abroad. But if the claimant certifies while travelling, there may be severe penalties to a claimant who fails to report travel outside the U.S.

Claimants should read the Claimant handbook or check the FAQ on the DOL website.

Usually, a claimant will be "locked out" when travelling. The DOL website will be unavailable when checking in from a foreign country. The claimant will then give their id and pin number to a friend and/or family in the United States to certify on their behalf. This can be easily traced due to electronically stored information.

The following is noted:

"COMMISSIONER'S POSITION: The NYS Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board has consistently upheld the Commissioner's long standing policy that a claimant who travels outside the United States to a country that is not a signatory to the Interstate Benefits Payment Plan is ineligible for benefits. In three such recent cases, AB 561517, AB 561528, and AB 561529, the Board sustained determinations holding claimants ineligible on the grounds that they failed to report as required and that they were not available for work. The Board furthermore held that their certifications that they were ready, willing and able to work while abroad were willfully false. The Board has held that such a claimant must know he or she is not immediately ready to work either because of the time it would take to return to the U.S. (AB 561529), or because he or she lacked necessary documentation to work in the foreign country (AB 561517). The Commissioner of Labor requests that the Administrative Law Judge take official notice that the signatories to the Interstate Benefits Payment Plan include the 50 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Canada."