Claim-Filing questions in Wisconsin as of June 2022

Here is some updated information on the claim-filing questions in Wisconsin. You can find prior versions of these questions at this October 2020 post, which has the questions that existed as of September 2020.

This info is based on the Department’s initial claim questions that are available here, and the weekly certifications questions that are available here. These web pages have been consolidated into single PDF files:

• Initial claims questions in English — 61 pages long
• Weekly certification questions in English — 82 pages long

Keep in mind that you file an initial claim when you have suffered a job loss. An initial claim, however, does not pay you any unemployment benefits.

To be paid benefits for a particular week, you must then file a weekly certification that shows you meet all the eligibility criteria — able and available for work, searching for work, willing to accept any jobs offered you, not missing any work available to you, reporting all wages or pay for any services you have performed for another, and reporting other kinds of pay — for being paid unemployment benefits for that particular week.

This additional information being asked of you is why the weekly certification process is longer and more complicated. Any mistakes you make with the weekly certification questions will be presumed fraudulent, unless you can show that the mistake was not your fault (i.e., that you relied on mistaken advice from a Department representative). Keep in mind that the Department adjudicators doing any investigation are likely to be prosecuting you for those mistakes, and not actually listening to you.

So, keep you own records of what is told you and what you file (save PDFs of your own initial claims and weekly certifications as you file them by selecting that option at the end of each claim).

Comparison with what was

In 2007, here are ALL the questions that claimants were asked during their weekly certification (which they could even do back then through a technological marvel called a phone call):

1. During the week, were you able to work full-time and available for full-time work?
2. Did you contact at least two employers during the week to try to find work?
3. During the week, did you refuse an offer of work?
4. During the week, did you miss any work the employer had scheduled for you?
5. During the week, did you quit a job?
6. During the week, were you fired from a job?
7. Did you work during the week?
8. Did you receive or will you receive holiday pay for the week or any part of the week?
9. Did you receive or will you receive vacation pay for the week or any part of the week?
10. Did you receive or will you receive dismissal pay for the week or any part of the week?
11. Were you self-employed?

And, you could read in 2009 a Handbook for Claimants that went through each question and the answer the Department expected from you.