The CARES Act provides federal funds to states to reduce by half the liability of reimbursable employers for their claims through December 26, 2020. Under 2019 Act 185, the state will reimburse the remaining half from the Department of Workforce Development's interest and penalties account for benefit charges for initial claims related to the public health emergency declared by Executive Order 72.

Previously, the U.S. Department of Labor determined that employers subject to reimbursable financing must first pay the benefit charges due to the state in full before the federal government will reimburse those amounts. However, due to a new federal law, employers subject to reimbursable financing do not need to pay the state before the federal government will reimburse employers.

Your bill will continue to include 100% of all charges to your account because our billing system has not yet been updated. At this time, you should pay none of the benefit charges for initial claims related to the public health emergency declared by Executive Order 72. You should pay 50% of benefit charges for initial claims that are unrelated to the public health emergency declared by Executive Order 72. Once we have updated our system to reflect correct benefit charging, your account will be updated. We appreciate your patience as this may take many months to complete for all employers, but please be assured your account will be correctly credited.

Also, to request relief of charging under Act 185 for any initial claims filed by your employees for weeks of benefits filed after May 16, 2020, please visit our website at: https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/uitax/relief-of-charging.htm and follow the instructions to complete and submit the form.

UI is not requiring the employer to file the UCB-18823-E Relief of Charging Due To Public Health Emergency form in order to receive charging relief for employees laid off and filing initial claims during the weeks of the Governor's Executive Order 72, March 15 to May 16, 2020.