State Unemployment Benefits in South Dakota

State Unemployment Benefits in South Dakota: key facts

Administering agency

South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation (DLR), Reemployment Assistance Division.

Phone

605-626-2452 — Reemployment Assistance Customer Service, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time.

Weekly eligibility

Benefits are payable for a week only if the claimant made a claim for that week and was able to work and available for work (SDCL 61-6-1), and each week must be certified by a weekly request for payment. Weeks after the date of death cannot be certified, so no benefits accrue for them.

Payments not owed

Any amount paid as benefits to which the claimant was not entitled is an overpayment the department may require to be repaid (SDCL 61-6-41).

Overpayment survives the claimant

Death does not extinguish an overpayment. SDCL 61-6-45 lets the secretary cancel and waive an overpayment only on certification that the claimant has died AND reasonable efforts have been made to recover it from the claimant's estate — so the estate is the department's route before a write-off.

How the department learns of the death

Every month DLR matches its reemployment assistance recipient list against South Dakota Department of Health vital statistics death records and the Social Security Administration master death file (SDCL 61-6-68). A survivor's call is still the fastest way to stop payments, but the match runs regardless.

Benefits cannot be assigned

SDCL 61-6-48 voids any assignment, pledge, or encumbrance of a right to benefits, and exempts the right to benefits from levy, execution, or attachment. An executor cannot take an assignment of a pending claim.

After a death

Neither SDCL title 61 nor ARSD article 47:06 sets out how a deceased claimant's final benefit is paid to a survivor or estate, and DLR publishes no death-reporting form, deceased-claimant page, or survivor documentation list. Call Reemployment Assistance Customer Service at 605-626-2452 to report the death and to confirm whether any payment is owed for weeks of eligibility before the death, what documentation DLR requires, and who may receive it.

Governing law: SDCL 61-6-1 (weekly eligibility); SDCL 61-6-41, 61-6-45 (overpayments and recovery from the estate); SDCL 61-6-48 (assignment void); SDCL 61-6-68 (monthly death-record matching)

Steps to take when someone dies

1. Call DLR Reemployment Assistance Customer Service at 605-626-2452 (Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Central Time) to report the claimant's death.
2. Ask DLR whether a payment is owed for any week the claimant certified before death, what documentation DLR requires, and who may receive it — the agency publishes no standard form or document list for this.
3. Expect DLR to treat any amount paid to which the claimant was not entitled as an overpayment subject to repayment (SDCL 61-6-41), and to look to the estate for it: the secretary may write the overpayment off only on certification that the claimant died and reasonable efforts to recover from the estate were made (SDCL 61-6-45).
4. Do not accept an assignment of the claim — SDCL 61-6-48 voids any assignment, pledge, or encumbrance of a right to reemployment assistance benefits.

Frequently asked questions