Chapter 151A

Section 36. Benefits which are or may become due under this chapter shall not be assigned, pledged, encumbered, released, commuted or trusteed before payment; and when paid shall, as long as they are not mingled with other funds of the beneficiary, be exempt from all claims of cr…

Section 37. No fee shall be charged in any proceeding under this chapter by the commissioner or any of his agents or representatives. In any proceeding under this chapter a party may be represented by an agent or attorney. No fees for the services rendered by such agent or attorn…

Section 38. (a) Benefit claims shall be filed at the employment office at which the claimant has registered as unemployed. The commissioner shall prescribe the form, the time, and the manner in which such claims, other than disputed claims, shall be filed. The commissioner shall …

Section 38A. (a) If the director, or the director's authorized representative, determines, after providing written or electronic notice to the employer, that a payment of benefits was made because the employing unit, or an agent of the employing unit, was at fault for failing to …

Section 39. (a) The commissioner or his authorized representative shall promptly determine, in accordance with the procedures established by the commissioner, and after making such inquiries and investigations as he deems necessary, whether or not a claim is valid, and the amount…

Section 40. A claimant or interested party may, within thirty days after mailing to him of notice of the decision, file an application for a review of such decision by the board of review.

Section 41. (a) Unless such application for review is withdrawn, the board of review shall make a preliminary examination of the record of the hearing afforded by the commissioner, along with the findings of fact and the decision, and shall, in its discretion, grant or deny the a…

Section 42. The commissioner or any interested person aggrieved by any decision in any proceeding before the board of review may obtain judicial review of such decision by commencing within thirty days of the date of mailing of such decision, a civil action in the district court …

Section 42A. In any action to enforce any provision of this chapter, or any criminal proceedings thereunder, the commissioner shall be represented by the attorney general, or by any attorney at law designated by the attorney general for such purpose.

Section 42B. If any determination under section thirty-nine, or any decision under section thirty-nine, forty-one or forty-two, is finally modified or reversed, any benefits which have been paid but to which the claimant was not entitled under such final decision shall be deemed …

Section 43. In the discharge of the duties prescribed by this chapter, the commissioner and the members of the board of review and of the state advisory council, or the duly authorized representative of any of them, shall have the power to administer oaths, take depositions, cert…

Section 44. (a) The commissioner shall maintain a separate account for each employer, crediting his account with all the contributions which he has paid during each year. (b) The commissioner shall maintain suitable records for each employee on which may be recorded that part of …

Section 45. Every employing unit shall keep true and accurate records of all individuals employed by him and such other information as the commissioner deems necessary for the effective administration of this chapter. Such records shall be open to inspection by the commissioner o…

Section 46. (a) Except as provided in this section, information secured pursuant to this chapter is confidential and for the exclusive use and information of the department in the discharge of its duties. Such information is not a public record nor admissible in any action or pro…

Section 47. Any person who knowingly makes any false or misleading statement, representation or submission or knowingly assists, abets, solicits or conspires in the making of any false or misleading statement, representation or submission in order to maintain, obtain, or increase…

Section 47A. Whoever, with intent to defraud, makes, draws, utters or delivers any check, draft or order for the payment of any amount required under this chapter upon any bank or other depository, with knowledge that the maker or drawer has not sufficient funds or credit at such…

Section 48. There is hereby established, separate and apart from all public moneys or funds of the commonwealth, an Unemployment Compensation Fund, which shall be administered by the commissioner without liability on the part of the commonwealth beyond the amounts credited to and…

Section 49. No person shall be or be deemed to be vested with any property or other right by virtue of the enactment of this chapter.

Section 4A. The term ''employment'' shall include any service performed prior to January first, nineteen hundred and seventy-eight which was employment as provided by this chapter prior to such date, and, subject to the other provisions of this chapter, service performed after De…

Section 5. The term ''employment'' shall include services covered by an arrangement under provisions of section sixty-six, pursuant to which arrangement all services performed by an individual for an employing unit are deemed to be performed within the commonwealth, if the commis…

Section 50. (a) The state treasurer shall be, ex officio, the treasurer of the Unemployment Compensation Fund. He shall maintain within the Unemployment Compensation Fund two separate accounts as follows:— (1) A clearing account in which the commissioner, immediately upon their r…

Section 51. The state treasurer shall from time to time requisition from said Unemployment Trust Fund such amounts, not exceeding the amounts standing to the commonwealth's account therein, as the commissioner deems necessary for the payment of benefits for a reasonable future pe…

Section 52. All moneys requisitioned from the commonwealth's account in the Unemployment Trust Fund in the United States treasury and received by the commissioner from the state treasurer shall be immediately deposited in a benefit account maintained by the commissioner. All mone…

Section 53. Any balance of moneys requisitioned from the Unemployment Trust Fund which remains unclaimed or unpaid in the benefit account after the expiration of the period for which such sums were requisitioned shall either be deducted from estimates for, and may be utilized for…

Section 53A. Money credited to the commonwealth's account in the Unemployment Trust Fund by the secretary of the treasury of the United States, pursuant to section nine hundred and three of the federal social security act, as amended, may be (1) withdrawn for the payment of benef…

Section 54. Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, moneys in the clearing and benefit accounts and the contingent fund may be deposited in any depositary bank in which general funds of the commonwealth may be deposited, but no public deposit insurance charge or premium sha…

Section 55. The commissioner shall give a bond conditioned upon the faithful performance of his duties with respect to the benefit account in an amount not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars, and approved by the governor and council and with surety or sureties satisfactory to…

Section 56. The provisions of this chapter, to the extent that they relate to the Unemployment Compensation Fund, shall be operative only so long as such Unemployment Compensation Fund continues to exist and so long as the secretary of the treasury of the United States of America…

Section 57. In the event of the provisions contained in section fifty-six becoming operative (a) The commissioner shall from time to time requisition from the state treasurer as treasurer ex officio of the trust fund such amounts of moneys as he deems necessary for the payment of…

Section 58. (a) There is hereby created the employment security administration account, hereinafter called the account, to consist of all moneys (1) Appropriated by the commonwealth for the administration of this chapter or for said account, including such money as may be made av…

Section 58A. There is hereby established a special fund to be known as the contingent fund which shall be maintained by the state treasurer separate and apart from all public moneys or funds of the commonwealth. The fund shall consist of all interest, penalties and fines collecte…

Section 59. The state treasurer, in addition to the provisions contained in section two of chapter ten, shall be liable on the treasurer's bond for the faithful performance of his duties in connection with the unemployment compensation fund, the clearing account in connection the…

Section 6. The term ''employment'' shall not include: (a) service in agricultural labor, except as otherwise provided in subsection (b) of section 4A and section 8C, by an individual who is an alien admitted to the United States to perform agricultural labor pursuant to section 2…

Section 60. All federal moneys allotted or apportioned to the commonwealth by the Federal Social Security Board, the Federal Railroad Retirement Board, or other federal agency, for the administration of this chapter, shall be paid into the employment security administration accou…

Section 61. Special employment service accounts shall be maintained as a part of the account, for the purpose of segregating such money as may be made available by the commonwealth for its state employment service, together with such money as may be allotted to the commonwealth u…

Section 62. The state advisory council shall perform all the duties imposed on it by this chapter, and, in addition, shall consider and advise the commissioner upon all matters connected with this chapter. It shall have full investigatory powers, and shall have direct access to a…

Section 62A. (a) The department of unemployment assistance shall provide regional in-person assistance in each workforce area and in coordination with the MassHire department of career services. A department representative shall be available for assistance at each workforce area …

Section 63. The commissioner, subject to the approval of the commission on administration and finance, shall cause to be printed in proper form for distribution to the public the full text of this chapter, the general rules, annual reports, regulations, classifications, rates and…

Section 64. (a) The commissioner shall make such reports, in such form and containing such information, as the secretary of labor may from time to time require, and shall furnish such additional information in such form as the secretary of labor may from time to time require to s…

Section 64A. The commissioner shall on or before July first of each year provide to the chairman of the board of assessors in each city and town a list of all employers located in the city and town that qualified for an exemption pursuant to section five I of chapter fifty-nine d…

Section 65. The commissioner may make the commonwealth's records relating to the administration of this chapter available to the Federal Railroad Retirement Board and may furnish said board, at the expense of said board, such copies thereof as said board deems necessary for its p…

Section 66. The commissioner is hereby authorized to enter into reciprocal arrangements with appropriate and duly authorized agencies of other states or of the federal government, or both, whereby: (a) Services performed by an individual for a single employing unit for which serv…

Section 66A. To the extent permissible under the laws and constitution of the United States, the commissioner is authorized to enter into or co-operate in arrangements whereby facilities and services provided under this chapter and services and facilities provided under the emplo…

Section 67. If any employer shall wilfully fail or refuse to make any report or return as required by any provision of this chapter or of the rules and regulations of the commissioner made under authority of this chapter, the commissioner may estimate the liability of such employ…

Section 68. The commissioner may provide for the payment, to such person or persons as the commissioner finds entitled thereto, of benefits due a deceased person, or a person who has become incapacitated by reason of mental illness or who is an insane person and incapable of prop…

Section 69. (a) The department may recover by a civil action any amounts paid to an individual through error, or, in the discretion of the commissioner, the amount erroneously paid may be deducted from any future payments of benefits accruing to an individual under the provisions…

Section 69A. The commissioner, upon certification to the state advisory council, may charge off any delinquent contributions, payments in lieu of contributions, interest, or penalties at any time after six years from the date of delinquency, if the commissioner is satisfied that …

Section 69B. In addition to any other remedy provided by this chapter, the commissioner may request that the amount payable to the department by an individual resulting from an overpayment of unemployment benefits which has become final as specified in 430 CMR 6.12 be set off aga…

Section 69C. (a) If a back pay award to an individual is reduced because of the receipt of unemployment benefits by the individual, the employer against whom the back pay award was made shall notify the commissioner of the back pay award in such manner as prescribed by the commis…

Section 69D. As used in this section, the term ''final'' shall mean that: (1) there is no pending hearing or appeal under section 39 to 42, inclusive, from a decision determining that an individual knowingly and willfully failed to furnish information; (2) no hearing or appeal fr…