The Michigan Employment Security Board of Review is an autonomous, quasi-judicial body within the Department of Labor & Economic Growth. It is the final administrative appellate step within the unemployment compensation system, and its primary mission is to process and decide appeals from decisions and orders issued by UA referees in contested unemployment benefits programs. The Board also reviews referee decisions concerning unemployment tax liability issues. Since 1936, a coordinated state-federal unemployment compensation system has existed to protect the people of Michigan from the hazards of unemployment. The Social Security Act requires, as an integral part of each state's unemployment compensation system, that there be a fair and impartial mechanism for appealing denials of unemployment benefits. The Michigan Employment Security Act provides a two-tiered administrative appellate system. Contested matters are first considered by UA referees. Their decisions and orders may then be appealed to the Board of Review. This system affords claimants, employers and the agency an opportunity to have disputed issues resolved by persons who are expert in unemployment compensation matters without encountering the delay, expense and formality associated with the civil judicial system. At the same time, the administrative appellate system relieves the circuit courts of the added burden of deciding thousands of unemployment compensation appeals.