New Jersey Administrative Code
Title 12 - LABOR AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 17 - UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT PAYMENTS
Subchapter 7 - DEPENDENCY BENEFITS
Section 12:17-7.4 - Verification and proof of dependency status
Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 6, March 18, 2024
(a) An individual who claims a dependent for allowance purposes shall provide to the Division within six weeks from the date of the claim appropriate verification and proof of the declared dependency status, which shall be evidenced by the Federal or State income tax return(s) filed for the tax year immediately preceding the filing of the application for dependency allowance. If the tax return is not a joint return, the individual tax return for the spouse or civil union partner being claimed as a dependent shall be submitted. In the case that the income tax return is not available or insufficient to prove current dependency status, the Division may consider a combination of the following documents to verify the status of claimed dependents: birth, baptismal, marriage, or civil union certificate(s) or certified copies thereof; certified divorce, dissolution, child support, annulment or adoption order(s) or any other legal documents, which verify the status of claimed dependents. The presentation of a birth or baptismal document shall not in and of itself be sufficient to establish dependency status.
(b) If a claimant who is married or in a civil union declares an unemployed spouse or civil union partner as a dependent, the spouse's or civil union partner's Social Security number shall be provided to the appropriate office no later than six weeks from the date of the claim for the purpose of ascertaining whether the spouse or civil union partner is, in fact, unemployed.
(c) An individual who is eligible for unemployment compensation benefits and who upon request by the Division has not yet submitted the required verification and proof of declared dependency status shall be paid only the determined weekly benefit rate, which does not include the dependency allowance based on the declared number of eligible dependents, until the verification and proof requirement has been met.
(d) If the verification and proof requirement is not satisfied within six weeks of the date of claim (eight weeks for interstate claims) the claimant shall be ineligible to receive the dependency allowance benefits for the duration of the claim.
(e) Any individual who is determined by the Division to have illegally received or attempted to receive dependency benefits as a result of any false or fraudulent representation shall be subject to the disqualification and penalty provisions of 43:21-5(g) and 43:21-16.
