Michigan employers have less than a week to complete a step that cannot be delegated: retrieving activation codes from the state’s existing unemployment insurance platform before it closes permanently. The Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) is replacing the Michigan Web Account Manager (MiWAM), which has been in service since 2012, with a new system called MiUI, and the transition creates a compliance gap that falls on the employer, rather than on any third-party administrator handling unemployment claims on their behalf.
MiWAM shuts down at 4:30 p.m. on November 2. The replacement platform, MiUI, goes live for benefits functions at 8am on November 9. During the seven-day window between those two dates, both MiWAM and MiUI’s benefits functions will be unavailable, UIA phone lines will be offline, and local UIA offices will be closed. Employers who have not retrieved their MiUI activation codes before November 2 may be unable to complete that step until after the new system launches and could enter the MiUI era without an active account.
The UIA has been direct about the account activation requirement: every Michigan employer must establish its own MiUI account, including those that outsource unemployment insurance administration to a payroll provider or TPA. Third-party access does not substitute for the employer’s own account. According to the Detroit Regional Chamber, approximately 23,165 Michigan employers, or roughly 10 percent of businesses in the state, had not activated their MiUI accounts as of August 14, per the Detroit Regional Chamber, despite the agency sending reminder communications since at least July.
Benefits advisors working with Michigan employer clients are well positioned to flag this, particularly where the advisor also coordinates HR compliance matters or works alongside a TPA that handles claims administration. An employer without an active MiUI account after launch will face delays reviewing benefit claim information, filing protests, and managing benefit charges, all of which previously ran through MiWAM.
Two new benefits-related permissions have also been introduced within MiUI: “Edit Claims Forms Mailing” and “Edit Benefit Charges.” The UIA has warned that TPAs holding existing tax-related permissions may not automatically receive these new roles. Employers need to assign them manually through MiUI University before November 9, or those administrators will be unable to manage benefits functions when the system goes live.
Michigan’s UI benefit amounts increased in April 2025 under legislation signed in December 2024, raising the maximum weekly benefit from $362 to $446 in April 2025, then to $530 on January 1, 2026, with a further increase to $614 scheduled for January 1, 2027. The ability to protest improper benefit charges, and to do so promptly, has become more valuable as each approved claim carries a higher cost. An employer that cannot access MiUI on launch day because account activation was deferred is also an employer that cannot respond to those charges in time.
The UIA has published transition guidance through MiUI University, its online resource hub, which includes step-by-step instructions for account activation, TPA permission assignment, and system navigation. The agency’s October 2026 employer newsletter identifies account activation, access management, and administrator permissions as the three immediate priorities before November 9.
