Contact

This guide has no contact form, and it cannot see, change, or speed up a South Carolina unemployment claim. Only DEW, the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce, can do that, and these are the ways DEW gives to reach it.

Questions about your own claim

Call 1-866-831-1724 (Relay 711), which DEW's phone directory lists as TelClaim, its claimant self-service line.

• To check your claim or a payment, you need not call: the Dashboard tab in MyBenefits shows your claim and payment status at any hour.
• To fix an honest mistake on an initial claim or a weekly certification, call and ask for a claims specialist. MyBenefits takes no changes once you have reached its completion page.
• For help in another language, the handbook says the same number gives free assistance if you do not speak English.

Appeal hearings, overpayment notices, debit card activation, and interstate filing each have a number of their own; which DEW number to call for what lists them.

A general question, asked online

DEW's UI Webform takes broad questions about the unemployment process and can spare you a wait on the phone. For security reasons, DEW shares nothing about an individual claim through it. The same form comes in Spanish as the formulario web del seguro de desempleo.

While you are filing in MyBenefits, DEW's AI chatbot, Dewy, answers claims questions.

Fraud, or a claim filed in your name

Report unemployment fraud to DEW's Fraud Hotline at 1-800-868-1488 (Relay 711), through DEW's online fraud and identity theft report form, or by mail to DEW Fraud Investigations, PO Box 995, Columbia, SC 29202. You do not have to give your name, and any contact details you do give stay confidential.

If someone filed a claim in your name, open the Identity Theft and Imposter Claims tab on DEW's fraud page and use its report button, or call the same hotline. DEW then puts a hold on that claim to stop further payments and may contact you. The other places to report it, from your employer to the IRS, are in South Carolina's fraud and identity theft steps.

DEW's site also lists the State Inspector General, 855-723-7283, for reporting fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, or misconduct.

A disability accommodation or a discrimination complaint

To ask DEW for an accommodation for a disability, call 803.737.2381, use the TTY relay at 711, or email ADA@dew.sc.gov.

A discrimination complaint may be filed within 180 days of the alleged violation, either with DEW's Office of Equal Opportunity (P.O. Box 908, Columbia, S.C. 29202, telephone 803.737.2381, TTY relay 711) or directly with the Director, Civil Rights Center, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Room N-4123, Washington, D.C. 20210.

If you go to DEW first, the handbook says you wait for its decision or for 90 days to pass, whichever is sooner, before filing with the Civil Rights Center. With no written decision within 90 days, you have 30 days after that period ends to file there. If you are unhappy with DEW's resolution, you have 30 days from the date you received notice of it.

Writing to DEW

DEW's administrative headquarters is at 1550 Gadsden Street, P.O. Box 995, Columbia, South Carolina 29202. Appeals, overpayment waivers, and repayments each go to their own mailing address, which the appeals and overpayments guide gives.