The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) warns Unemployment Insurance (UI) claimants to be aware of unscrupulous business operators who may try to charge a fee to file unemployment claims. Filing for unemployment benefits through TWC, as always, is free.

Claimants who sign on for so-called "fee-for-filing" scams could later discover unemployment claims were never filed on their behalf. They also may have given their Social Security numbers to someone they believed to be a TWC employee.

Claimants should always seek online UI information through www.texasworkforce.org or by using the e-mail form found on TWC’s website.

TWC wants to ensure that UI benefits go to only those who qualify and to ensure that no one is taken advantage of by someone illegally posing as a TWC staff member or by unscrupulous business operators.

UI claimants also are reminded that TWC unemployment staff never perform home visits, ask for Personal Identification Numbers (PIN) or use text messages to contact claimants. Claimants should only give personal information when filing for benefits online at www.texasworkforce.org or when speaking to an unemployment benefit customer service representative on the Tele-Center phone filing system.

It is critical that UI claimants do not pay for a government service that is free.

The UI program, funded through employer taxes, provides temporary, partial-income replacement to workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. TWC administers and oversees the collection of taxes from employers and the payment of UI benefits to qualified claimants.

To report possible fraud, call the TWC Fraud and Program Abuse Hotline at (800) 252-3642.

The Texas Workforce Commission is a state agency dedicated to helping Texas employers, workers and communities prosper economically. For details on TWC and the programs it offers in coordination with its network of local workforce development boards, call (512) 463-8556 or visit www.texasworkforce.org