Filing For Unemployment

Zag, yes to both counts. At least in Maryland.

To use your example, if I strung for you by writing three stories at $50 a pop in a given week for $150, $50 of that is taken out of my unemployment benefit for that week. I can earn the first $100 without it affecting my unemployment benefit, but anything after that cuts into my unemployment benefit for a week.

The most concrete example: I umpired seven baseball games in one week at $43 per game for a total of $301 of income that week. When I reported it with the unemployment office, they took $201 out of my benefit amount for that week.

To answer the latter part of your question, if you're eligible for benefits, you will have a certain amount that you can draw over the course of a year. If you earn income in a week and the state pays you less the amount you earn from income (such as umpiring or stringing), it's less money that's taken out of your unemployment insurance account, thus allowing you to draw benefits a little bit longer.

 

OK, so I am trying to reason with him - what is the downside to receiving a few bucks from us? It sounds like it doesn't cut into his money, extends his benefits a few weeks and it keeps his foot in the door so to speak.

Am I missing something?

And like I said - I know I can be a little bit of an asshole sometimes (OK, when I am cranky, a lot ;D) but I am really asking a serious question here and appreciate your help to this point.

 

My guess is he doesn't want to have to report the money so that he can draw his full weekly benefit amount. If it's a situation where the check takes weeks to arrive and he's got bills to pay, I can understand it.

In my case, I'd rather report the money when I earn it (not when I get it) so that my benefits get extended. Of course, I'm fortunate in that I don't have a whole lot of bills at this point.

 

It doesn't hurt him to work for you. At least not as I understand it. I wish I knew for sure, but I was denied unemployment. I had a lot of time to read the rules, though, and I think your friend should take the work you offer him. It will lessen his benefit at the time, but ultimately it won't cost him any benefit money he has coming to him. Just make sure he understands the tax implications of freelance work if he doesn't already.

forever_town has a point, though. If it takes longer for the freelance check to get to him than the benefit check, that could be a problem with bills that need to be paid.

 

It could also hurt him. In some states, you may have to declare whether you were looking for work and/or if you turned down any work.

Turning down work (even freelance work) can deduct a benefit.

 

Good point.

Give me the freelance work.

 

Theoretically, benefits you don't get now remain in your account if you run the unemployment all the way out, but in the short-term, you're working for nothing. There's a disincentive to work part-time (not to mention a shit-ton of paperwork and red tape). If you think you're going to use up your benefits, making a little on the side and reporting it makes sense. But that's a tough assumption to make.

 

That's pretty much my story. If I could find freelance or part-time work, I would in essence be working for free, unless I made quite a bit of money at the job. In my state, I'm not sure whether I get any benefit not paid due to having a job at the end of my 26 weeks (which will be sometime in December). My impression is that I don't get it, in which case the benefit, like vacation days at some shops, just disappear if not used in a certain time frame.

I'm looking for work in which I'd be paid under-the-table.* Freelancing isn't an option this year because the company that laid me off when they shut down my paper can't issue a 1099 tax form and a W2 to the same person in the same year, lest the IRS come a'calling. Since my severance was issued to me this year, there you go.

* -- at first that read "looking for under-the-table work." I wisely edited that.

 

Sorry to hear that, Kevin. Been in your shoes and it's no fun. Don't let the bastards wear you down. Easier said than done, I know.

 

I know it's been several months since this thread was last updated, but there's something else that I've come across that bears mentioning for anyone who's drawing unemployment.

In Maryland, if you accept temporary work or part-time work (such as stringing) and you earn more money in a given week than your weekly benefit amount, the state considers you no longer unemployed. If your assignment's over, you have to re-open your claim.

Also, I've learned that if you're working at a temp agency and you don't have any assignments, when you call to re-open your claim, you report the reason for "leaving employment" as lack of work, which means no available assignments when your temporary agency would be willing to send you on additional ones.