I misled the unemployment Insurance Agency. What should I do?

by mohammad alwawi
(michigan)

I received a letter from the unemployment agency indicating that I have intentionally misled them by reporting lack of work reason for being discharge from a job. I stated when I filed for unemployment that I was laid off because lack of work but the employer state that I was discharged because of substandard of quality and quantity. I have never been told by the employer I was fired.

They told me I have been discharged because I do not have enough experience to do the job. I believe I was discharged because the of lack of work and due to struggling economy. I had 10 years of working experience with another employers.
What should I do?

I have already responded to the UIA 9 questions that they send me to answer.

Hi Mohammad,

First and foremost, be completely honest going forward from here.

Ironically, if you had been straight from the beginning you may have been denied unemployment insurance benefits, but you could have appealed to a hearing to deal with the denial and poor performance is a reason that employers have a hard time sustaining their burden of proof because poor performance is not necessarily misconduct.

Inability to do a job is not misconduct. The employer needs to prove a person "willfully, knowingly or intentionally chose not to do the job correctly.

You will just need to proceed from this point on with the truth and do your best.

When you misrepresented the reason for discharge you in effect created another issue (fraud) that you are now having to deal with and you need to focus on reestablishing your credibility by focusing upon the "real" circumstances of your job separation which was "discharged for poor job performance".

If you think you need help, Michigan does have an advocacy program that provides free help for individuals for unemployment hearings. You can read about it here.

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by: Anonymous

I was honest at filing the unemployment application because the company discharge and never told me I was fired and there reasons were not convincing to me. Their work was slow and I was a new employee. I worked there close to three months. They discharged me when the time was close to hire me full time and had to pay my relocation expenses. I believe they laid me off because of the struggling auto economy. I had ten years experience prior to start working for them and claiming that I did not have enough work.

No you weren't. You told the state you were "laid off". If the employer had told you "we have no more work for you to do so we have to lay you off, then you could tell the state what you did. But the employer told you that you were no longer employed because you were unable to do the job. That is a discharge, a firing, or whatever term you'd like to call it, but it is not a layoff.

If you had been honest with the state about the reason the employer gave you for letting you go irregardless of of whether they actually spoke the words "you're fired" instead of stating a reason you thought would get you benefits, you could have addressed this at the time of application.

Instead, it's now come out that you were fired. the "why" of what you think the "real reason" was should have already been addressed, but now you have damaged your credibility because you checked the wrong box on your application. If the employers reasons were not convincing you...maybe they wouldn't have convinced the state either.

So look what you have to deal with now. It is your fault you are now dealing with a fraud issue.

It is the separation from the last or most recent work that decides whether you get unemployment or not.

It is not your responsibility to determine facts for the state. You applied for unemployment and gave them your supposition as to what the employer did as the facts instead of telling the state truthfully what did happen and letting them make the determination.

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