Audits and Reality

The audits are starting to trickle in. This pandemic really started in late December 2019 and exploded in March of 2020. The financial decimation began to take effect in late May of 2020 when it became apparent that the Wisconsin DWD division of Unemployment Insurance (UI) had no idea how to actually do their jobs and didn’t care to figure it out. It is now December 16, 2020 and the truth is abundantly clear . . . we were right all along. I love being right, it gives me warm and fuzzy feelings inside. If you haven’t fully caught on, yes, this is me being a jerk and gloating.

Let’s be real. Back in June 2020, heck even in May, a small group of us sounded the alarm that the inner core of management of the UI division was corrupt. Initially, yes, we looked at the lame duck laws and the Republicans. But the more I read the laws, the more I realized they aren’t that bad. Those laws protect everyone and every dollar. The laws written for the UI division, aside from the law ruling that a claimant can not receive both SSDI and UI at the same time, are comparable across the country. They stop the unnecessary bleeding of the UI Trust Fund and incorporate safeguards and programs that guide people into the workforce when they are struggling, but also supports them throughout the process.

After clearing that hurdle, our focus went solely to management and decision makers. We read emails, we followed the patterns of discussions, we tore apart interviews, we watched the “performance” by then Sec. Frostman on May 27th before the Senate Regulatory Committee. We devoured every piece of information we could get to support our suspicions that the DWD UI division was being run by pure evil. There was no greed factor or money motive. It was and is a culture designed to deny, defend, and delay the process and procedure of claims for the simple reason of keeping stats. The unemployment rate needs to be low, we need to show improvement. How do we control that? By denying unemployment claims!

Wait, how do you control statistical data when a pandemic hits? The entire UI division has been trained on how to do their jobs in a manner of controlling stats with one singular goal. You can’t keep a low unemployment rate when everyone is flocking to the unemployment line, can you? Now, a sudden shift in the needs of the states constituents, affects everything the UI division does. But are they retrained? No. Are they briefed? No. They are told business as usual. And that is how we are where we are today. Yes, progress has been made, but at what cost? Thousands of claimants waiting for appeals because they selected the wrong box? Because they were wrongfully denied?

Sure there is a temporary Secretary that has vowed to clear the backlog by the end of the year. But how many of those cleared claims are being denied? How many are being pushed through to appeal? What is she doing for the appeal process? What is happening with the thousands of lives that have been severely affected by this selfish and inhumane treatment? WHO is going to take accountability and apologize?

Remember that question about keeping a low unemployment rate while everyone is flocking to the unemployment line? Well, where are we right now? In the thick of it . . . with quite a low unemployment rate because they have managed to manipulate the numbers by denying and sending thousands into appeal. Thwarting the needs of the people and instead, we are seeing the residuals of the old UI regime’s way of “helping” the people of Wisconsin.

Published by chenontr

I'm just a girl looking for the truth. I love digging into mental health and why we are so afraid of it. I also enjoy taking on advocacy issues and fighting the fights that need fighting.

4 thoughts on “Audits and Reality

    1. That is so hard to combat. I started recording calls because of so many people saying this was happening. I figured the only way I could defend against this was to have a recording to prove what I had said and what I was told by DWD representatives. Did you end up getting denied and sent to appeal?


  1. I’m waiting on one determination. My old boss told UI I refused work. I found a better paying job, she failed to mention that.
    That determination is dropped in my favor. But one determination left saying they are investigating to see if someone concealed info. Basically same issue. I bettererd myself yet now I’m paying. Got laid off, 2nd time this year.


    1. What adds onto the frustration is that my unemployment is being held for (no one can be specific)
      , I thought it was pretty open-and-shut I was laid off because of the covid-19. I’m a server and when it got cooler out they didn’t need me. That’s not being disputed no. The only thing that’s being disputed is my former boss who called unemployment and told them I refused to come back to work. I had just started another job the same week. She knew that I even forwarded the texts to unemployment if nobody can tell me if they received them. It’s so frustrating it’s far more difficult to collect now than in March. The days of incident(concealing info) is the same day my old boss contacted UI about my refusal for work. So it really has nothing to do work me, I’m thinking. If I could just get the same answer for more than one person. It seems they just hired people to answer phones they don’t do anything.


Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: