How do you appeal a DUA unemployment denial in Massachusetts?

You pick how the hearing happens when you file: by phone, virtually, or in person. The same form lets you ask for an interpreter and upload the documents you want the hearing to see.

How to file your appeal

Online, log in to your Unemployment Services for Workers account, open the Benefit Details panel, select View more benefit details, then File an Appeal.

By mail, send either the Appeal Request Information Form that came with your Notice of Disqualification or a letter of your own. A letter has to give the reason you disagree with the decision, your phone number, your claimant ID, and your signature. Send it to:

Department of Unemployment Assistance, Hearings Department, 100 Cambridge Street, Suite 400, Boston, MA 02114

If you miss the 10-day deadline

Ask anyway. A request that arrives within 30 days may be approved if there was a good reason for the delay, and in very limited circumstances DUA may approve one that arrives after 30 days.

If DUA turns down the late request, that refusal can itself be appealed in your Unemployment Services for Workers account.

The hearing and the offices that run it

The DUA Hearings Department runs the hearing from regional offices around the state, and your Notice of Hearing names the one handling your case.

• Boston Regional Hearings Office, 2 Avenue de Lafayette, Boston, MA 02111, (617) 626-5200
• Northeast Regional Hearings Office, 360 Merrimack Street, Building 9, Entry I, Suite 327, Lawrence, MA 01843, (978) 738-4400
• Southeast Regional Hearings Office, 226 Main Street, Brockton, MA 02301, (508) 894-4777
• West/Central Regional Hearings Office, 1 Federal Street 102-2, Suite 11, Springfield, MA 01109, (413) 452-4700

DUA then sends a Confirmation of Your Appeal and a Notice of Hearing, and both explain how to prepare. Start on that as soon as they arrive. You may want to hire a lawyer, line up witnesses, and gather the documents that support your side.

If you disagree with the hearing decision

The next step up is the Board of Review, and its deadline is 30 calendar days counted from the date printed on the Hearing Appeal Results page of your hearings decision.

You can file it in your account, email it to DUAboardofreview@mass.gov, fax it to (617) 727-5874, or mail it to:

Board of Review, 100 Cambridge St., Suite 400, Boston, MA 02114

An appeal filed online has to be in by 11:59 p.m. on the last day of the 30 days. Where that last day is a Saturday, a Sunday, a legal holiday, or a day the Board is closed, the deadline moves to the next business day. An appeal sent by mail counts as filed on the date of the U.S. Postal Service postmark, and where there is no postal postmark, or only a postage meter stamp, on the date the Board receives it.

Within 21 days the Board tells both sides whether it is denying the appeal or taking the case for review, and it aims to issue a written decision within 45 days. If the Board denies the appeal, or its written decision goes against you, the next appeal is to the District Court. The Board's own number is (617) 626-6400.

If DUA says you were overpaid

An overpayment is benefit money DUA has decided you were not entitled to, and what happens next turns on whether it was due to fault or fraud.

On an overpayment due to fault or fraud, interest starts running 30 days after DUA sends the overpayment notice, at 12% of the unpaid principal a year. There may also be a one-time 15% penalty, and you may have to serve penalty weeks before benefits are paid again.

If you do not repay the debt, set up a plan, or apply for a waiver, DUA can take money from your state or federal tax refund and up to 50% of any unemployment benefits you receive in the future.

Paying it back, or asking for a waiver

Online payments go through your Unemployment Services for Workers account. By mail, send a check or money order for the exact amount you owe, made out to the Department of Unemployment Assistance with your claimant ID written on it, to:

Department of Unemployment Assistance, Attn: UI Benefit Collections, P.O. Box 9699, Boston, MA 02114

Do not send cash. To set up a payment plan, call (617) 626-6300.

A waiver is for someone who cannot afford the debt, and it is closed to anyone whose debt is due to fault or fraud. Request one in your account, or mail the application to the Department of Unemployment Assistance, Attn: Benefit Collections Department, 100 Cambridge St, 4th Floor, Suite 400, Boston, MA 02114.

DUA's own pages cover how to request an overpayment waiver and how to repay unemployment benefit debt.

Reporting unemployment fraud

If someone has applied for benefits using your information, report it online or call (877) 626-6800. DUA then locks that claim, issues no payments on it, and does not report money already paid on it to the IRS as your income. Where a 1099-G has already gone out on the claim, DUA can send you a corrected one.

DUA will never ask you to pay a fee to file a claim, and the real claimant site is unemployment.mass.gov/Claimants. Sites built to look like it are not DUA's.

Report unemployment benefits fraud