November 20, 2025
Alert employers about erroneous wage report notices from Illinois Department of Employment Security.
Illinois SUI: Incorrect Wage Report Discrepancy Notices Sent by Agency
The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) alerted Check of an administrative error they made that will result in some Illinois employers receiving an erroneous notice. The IDES incorrectly sent a "Notice of Wage Report Discrepancy" to all Illinois employers who are considered reimbursable Unemployment Insurance (UI) employers.
We do not have an impact list from the state, but not all Illinois employers will be impacted. This should not require outward proactive communication, as the pool of employers will be small and the notice easy to spot upon receipt.
What to look for if an employer sends you a notice:
- The notice is from the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES)
- The notice is titled “Notice of Wage Report Discrepancy”
- The notice advises the employer that errors exist in calculations of quarterly contributions owed to the Department
- There will be a deadline date to resolve the calculation error
If a reimbursable employer contacts you about this notice, you can reassure them using this message:
"The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) has informed us that this specific notice was generated in error and was sent mistakenly to all reimbursable UI accounts. Since your account is reimbursable for unemployment, it does not generate contributions owed, meaning there can be no error in calculation. The 'Notice of Wage Report Discrepancy' has no merit and can be disregarded. The IDES is finalizing a solution to correct this system error. Thank you for understanding!"
If you are unsure if the notice is related, please forward to the Check Support team and we’re happy to review the notice and advise next steps.
Quarter End Filing: Paper Fallback Update
As you know, a tax ID is required for an electronic filing submission with most agencies. When the Tax ID is set to "Applied For," it cannot be included in an e-File. In addition, agencies are rapidly moving away from accepting any type of paper return and have become very strict in regards to a paper return with an "Applied For" account number.
Moving forward, if an agency provides an electronic filing or payment option, but the company has not given us enough information (e.g. applied for ID) or authorization (e.g. TPA) to use it, we will no longer support a paper fallback submission. These will instead be treated as blocked filings and payments.
We highly recommend companies register for any and all applicable taxes as soon as they are aware they will hire an employee in a new state or locality.
Please refer to our Knowledge Base for agency by agency instructions for the registration process.