What Does Monetary Reconsideration Mean in Unemployment Claims in Louisiana?

In Louisiana, there's reason to keep your payroll check stubs. Some employers in Louisiana manage their state unemployment benefit records well. Others may not. When you file an unemployment benefit claim with the state, all your employers share the cost of your unemployment benefit check, through the state's unemployment insurance program. If some employers neglected to report you worked for them, you are eligible to file a request for monetary consideration by proving you worked for that employer. That may allow you to receive a larger unemployment insurance check.

"Monetary reconsideration" of an unemployment claim is performed if not all the wages earned by the claimant in the base period are accounted for. For example, if you worked for XYZ Company, ABC Corporation and ZZT Incorporated during the "base period" -- the time frame upon which your claim is based -- and XYZ Company failed to provide the required information on your wages in a timely manner, you can request a monetary reconsideration of the unemployment claim as soon as the XYZ Company wage information becomes available.

In Louisiana, the base period is described as "the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters" of employment before January 1 of the year in which you file the unemployment claim with the Louisiana Workforce Commission. For example, if you file an unemployment claim on Jan 2, 2011, and you were employed fulltime for the previous 15 months, your base period is from Oct 1, 2009, through Sept. 30, 2010, and your employers in this period must report payment information for you.

All employers for whom you worked in the base period will receive the "Notice to Base Period Employer." This is a notice that their participation in the state's unemployment insurance fund will contribute to your unemployment benefit payment. It also states that they must provide information on your wages while employed by the firm. If firms do not forward the information in a timely manner, the amount of your unemployment benefit check is lowered. When you receive the "Notice of Claim Determination" from the Louisiana Workforce Commission, you have 15 days to file an appeal online at the Louisiana Workforce Commission website or by a letter addressed to the Appeal Unit of the Commission at Louisiana Workforce Commission, Appeals Unit, P. O. Box 94094, Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9094. Attach a copy of the "Notice of Claim Determination" to your letter. You may also fax the letter to 225-342-3112.

Any time the claim is reconsidered, another notice is mailed to the base period employers affected by any change in your unemployment benefit claim, regardless of the reason for the change. When your wages are corrected to reflect the "missing" wages, your claim is given monetary reconsideration for those missing wages and the affected employers receive a second "Notice to Base Period Employer." That notice shows the weekly benefit amount, maximum benefit amount and percent of benefit charges.