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January 27, 2006
Jackson -
Governor Barbour signed an Executive Order giving relief to both public and private sector employers whose employees were out of work as a direct result of Hurricane Katrina, the Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES) announced today.
The Order significantly eases the unemployment tax liability of countless businesses by not charging the individual experience rate of those employers who suffered massive layoffs and benefit claim filings due to Hurricane Katrina. Each private business has an "individual experience rating record" which reflects the individual unemployment insurance benefit costs for which the business is responsible.
The Executive Order addresses the concerns of public sector employers regarding their employees' eligibility for disaster related benefits. Some individuals, including school, city and county employees, apparently believing they were entitled to receive disaster related benefits, filed claims. In many cases these individuals were not entitled to receive the benefits. The Order decrees that the public sector employers will not be charged in cases where the disaster related payments were made based upon information that was later determined to be inadequate or incorrect.
MDES is actively pursuing cases of fraudulent unemployment claims by reviewing individual claims to detect fraud. Anyone suspecting cases where individuals may be illegally taking benefits should report this to MDES through their website (www.mdes.ms.gov) or by calling the MDES Fraud Hotline. (1-888-844-3566)
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