How to fax IDES, Illinois unemployment

Start with the letter you got

If you disagree with a finding or determination on your claim, write a letter, or fill in the Request for Reconsideration of Claims Adjudicator’s Determination form, explaining why. Send it within 30 days of the mailing date on the document, by mail, by fax or in person at your local IDES office. IDES says the office’s address and fax number appear on the finding or determination itself; its office locator doesn’t list fax numbers.

The reconsideration form prints 217-557-4913, the number of the IDES Document Processing Unit. If the reconsideration is denied, IDES sends your appeal on to its Appeals Division automatically.

If the last day falls on a weekend or another day IDES offices are closed, the IDES handbook says you can file on the next day they’re open.

• Federal civilian workers send copies of Standard Form 8 and Personnel Action Form 50, or other proof of federal work, to the Document Processing Unit at 217-557-4913, or deliver them to an IDES office.
• Veterans send a copy of the DD Form 214 to the same number.

Put your claimant ID on what you send: IDES prints it at the upper right of its letters. The reconsideration form asks for the claimant ID or the last four digits of your Social Security number, and employers give their company name and account number.

Before a hearing with an administrative law judge

Appeal hearings are held by phone. IDES mails a Notice of Hearing about ten days before, with the date and time.

• Exhibits: mail or fax any document you want to use to the other side and to the IDES Appeals Division at least 24 hours before the hearing. Fax the Appeals Division at the number printed on your Notice of Hearing, and write the docket number from the top of the notice on every page, or include a copy of the notice.
• Late evidence: IDES says exhibits that the judge and the other parties don’t have before the hearing may not be considered.
• The file: a request to review your case file goes to the judge’s fax number on page 2 of the Notice of Hearing.
• Missed the hearing? You can ask to reopen it within 10 days of the hearing date.

Faxing the Appeals Division doesn’t send your evidence to the other side: you have to send them a copy too. If the employer gives a fax number, FaxTonic can send that copy as a second fax.

Appealing to the Board of Review

If you disagree with the judge’s (referee’s) decision, you can appeal to the Board of Review within 30 days of the decision’s mailing date. Say why you’re appealing and include the docket number. IDES accepts the appeal by digital upload, at a local office, by mail or by fax at 630-645-3731.

The Board’s appeal form says you must also mail or hand-deliver a copy of your appeal to the other side, and that if you add new evidence, you must explain why, for reasons beyond your control, you couldn’t present it at the hearing.

Other IDES fax lines

• Fraud and identity theft: 312-793-2356, or report it online.
• Tax withholding on your benefits: sign the TAX-2 form and fax it to 630-495-8199, the number on IDES’s contact page. The form itself, last revised in 2014, prints the Document Processing Unit’s number instead.

IDES verifies identity online through ILogin, which it requires to apply and use your online account. Its pages don’t say whether identity documents can be faxed; if an office asks to see them, IDES says to bring them in person.

Uploading instead, and how IDES replies

You can upload documents in the Document Response Center of your IDES online account, after signing in through ILogin, or leave them in the dropbox at a local workforce office.

IDES sends its notices and decisions by mail, and the US Postal Service doesn’t forward IDES mail, so keep your address up to date with IDES. Hearing decisions are mailed after the hearing. Nothing comes back by fax.

IDES warns that it never sends text messages asking for personal information such as your Social Security or driver’s license number.

How to fax IDES with FaxTonic

1. Find the right number: on your finding or determination, your Notice of Hearing, or above.
2. Write your claimant ID, or the docket number for a hearing, on every page. Scan the pages, or photograph each one flat. FaxTonic takes PDF, JPEG, and PNG files, up to 4 MB once prepared for faxing and 20 pages per fax.
3. Open FaxTonic and add your file. Keep the free cover page with your name, a phone number and a subject such as “Request for reconsideration” or the docket number.
4. Choose the United States, enter the fax number and check the price: $1.49 a page. Then pay by card.
5. Save a screenshot of the status page once the fax is delivered, with a copy of what you sent.