Contact

This guide cannot see your Arizona unemployment claim, check on it, or change it, and it has no contact form. Only the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES) can act on a claim, so each route below leads to DES or to another official office.

Getting help with your claim

• In CACTUS, DES's online claim portal, you can see your claim and payment status, answer eligibility questions, upload documents, and respond when DES asks for more information.
• By phone, the UI Call Center answers at 1 (877) 600-2722 toll free, (602) 364-2722 in Phoenix, and (520) 791-2722 in Tucson, with relay for deaf and hard of hearing callers at 711. Choose Spanish on the menu to reach a Spanish-speaking agent; DES provides interpreters for other languages free of charge. The offices page sorts out which DES line handles which question, from payment status to hearing registration.
• By letter, write to Arizona Department of Economic Security, Unemployment Insurance Program, PO Box 29225, Mail Drop 5895, Phoenix, Arizona 85038-9225. DES's handbook asks you to include your Social Security number.

Do not email questions to the document inbox on DES's contact page. DES says nobody monitors it or replies, and that it only receives documents, in PDF, Doc, Docx, Txt, Rtf, JPEG, or PNG format.

Complaints about DES's service or a decision

DES's Client Advocate handles complaints about an unemployment matter or the service you received. The online form on the Client Advocate page asks you to pick a subject: a problem with the call center; disagreement with a disqualification, an overpayment decision, or an appeal decision; a request for claim documents; or a general complaint. By post, the Client Advocate is at DES Unemployment Insurance Administration, Site Code 860B, PO Box 6123, Phoenix, Arizona 85005-6123.

If you disagree with a determination itself, file an appeal before its deadline, which the appeals guide shows you how to count.

Reporting fraud or identity theft

• A claim filed in your name. Messages about a claim you never made, or an Electronic Payment Card you never requested, are warning signs. Tell your local police and file DES's online report from its unemployment fraud and identity theft page. The U.S. Department of Labor's state directory gives 1-800-251-2436 as Arizona's line for unemployment identity fraud.
• Someone else cheating the system. DES's Office of Inspector General takes reports of suspected unemployment benefits fraud through its online fraud report, in English or Spanish.

DES charges nothing for any unemployment service, and state workforce agencies such as DES do not ask for sensitive information by text. What a fraud finding means for a claim, and the steps after identity theft, are in the fraud section of the appeals guide.