In mid-April, the Wisconsin legislature enacted Act 185, making a host of changes to the state unemployment insurance (UI) program. One particularly helpful change for Wisconsin employers ensured that the cost of initial UI benefit claims filed for weeks after March 12, 2020 and before December 31, 2020 would be not be charged to employer UI accounts. The purpose of this provision was to relieve employers of the burden of new benefit charges that would have increased their unemployment taxes.
This provision of Act 185 was tied to a public health emergency that had been declared by Governor Evers’ administration in March. That public health emergency subsequently expired in May. In light of the expiration of the declared public health emergency, the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) recently announced that it was interpreting Act 185 to now require an employer to take action to continue to take advantage of this non-charging benefit.
More specifically, for any initial UI claims filed between May 16 and June 30, 2020, Wisconsin employers must file a newly created form – UCB-18823-E – with the DWD by August 15, 2020 to obtain the non-charging relief. For initial UI claims that are “related to” COVID-19 and filed after July 1, 2020, employers will have 30 days from the date the claim is filed to submit the form.
