My condolences on the loss of your Uncle.
Gina7169:I feel this mistake is directly related to his hanging himself.
You need to understand that when people commit suicide, they have mental health issues that needed to be addressed. Most people experiencing hard times don't kill themselves. It's not rational behavior. While he may have perceived the termination of benefits as the trigger to kill himself, if he was suicidal, if the unemployment hadn't been the trigger, something else would have been. Moreover, unemployment benefits don't last forever. Eventually they'd have run out and he'd have been in the same spot. I understand that the family wants someone to blame other than the Uncle for this. I lost a friend to suicide, and I know that emotion. But, hard as it is to accept, your uncle is the only person responsible here. A simple mistake on benefits is not the true cause of his death.
Gina7169: 1. What are our options in terms of us getting his back pay (up to August 2) so that we may offset the cremation costs which my father, who is on a fixed income, paid via his home equity. Any monies left over from reimbursing him for the cremation costs would go to either taking care of my Uncle's dog or setting up a college trust for one of his neices/nephews.
Your uncles estate would be able to pursue money owed to him. Whoever is the personal representative of the estate is the one to take care of that. If your uncle had no will, who gets his estate assets after payment of his debts will be determined by state intestacy law.
Gina7169: 2. What about the employee who made the mistake. I feel like I want to take my Uncle's death certificate, go to the agency, stand in front of the employee's desk and say "This is what your mistake cost my Uncle and his family/friends. Do you want to do your job better now?" Could that be considered harrassment of the employee?
You assume it's a mistake by a person rather than a computer glitch or something else. But let's assume you can identify a particular employee who made the mistake. That employee made a simple error. He or she likely didn't intend to make that mistake and certainly didn't intend that your uncle would commit suicide because of it. His/her mistake was not the direct cause of death, like it would be if he caused an accident that killed your uncle. Have you NEVER made a mistake in your job? Are you telling me you are PERFECT? If the answers to those questions are no, as they will be if you're honest, then tell me how you'd feel if someone came up to you because of some mistake you made and blamed you for someone's suicide? Are you really the kind of person that would want to upset someone over a simple non-injury mistake just to try to make yourself feel better?
Again, your uncle was the cause of his suicide, as a result of whatever mental issues he had going on. It's tragic, but not that employee's fault. Rational people don't commit suicide over stuff like this. Confronting this employee won't bring back your uncle, very likely won't ease your sorrow or make you feel any better, and could come back to cause you problems.
Gina7169: 3. How can I find out exactly when they realized their mistake and how long they postponed sending him the letter notifying him of the reinstatement? I don't trust them to tell me the truth, but I also cannot afford a lawyer to go with me to help me spot the lies (if any).
Realistically, you can't. You have no cause of action against the agency for this, and there is no obligation of the agency to give you any information about it. You are assuming, perhaps because of your grief, ill intent on the part of the agency to delibrately delay correcting the mistake once it learned of it. But you don't have any FACTS to suggest that's true.
I'm sorry for the loss you've suffered. But you are directing your anger in the wrong direction here. The UI compensation office isn't responsible for your uncle's death. As hard as it is to accept, any "blame" for that rests solely with whatever mental problems your uncle suffered from.
