Utah Court of Appeals: If You’re on Vacation, You Can’t Get Unemployment

In Higgs v. DWS, the Utah Court of Appeals affirmed the Department of Workforce Services determination that a man who was on vacation in the U.S. Virgin Islands had fraudulently obtained unemployment benefits for the week of his vacation.  The court rejected the man’s claims that his ignorance of the requirements of the statute should preclude a finding of fraud given that he had received a copy of the Claimant Guide, which detailed that a claimant must contact the Department of Workforce Services in circumstances such as his.  It also did not matter that he claimed he would have returned from vacation if he had been offered a job.