Unemployment benefits - Can you get back pay? (how much, employment)

[jwh9gdh3]

I was laid off 6 weeks ago with severance. I asked my employer if I could receive unemployment benefits at the same time as the severance and they said no. I could file after the severance ran out.

I just found out that they were wrong and I should have filed 6 weeks ago. Because I signed a release, I could have been receiving both unemployment and severance. Is there anything I can do? Is the company responsible for giving me bad info? Can I get back pay?

[smarty]

How did you find out?

My understanding is you can file... but MA will not pay you until your severance run out. It will take a few weeks before you get your check. You also need to take some classes to be eligible.

[Serenity141]

One of the questions you have to answer when you sign up for Unemployment is how much severance you already received, or expect to receive from your company. I believe that there is a difference between "regular severance--what the personnel manual says you get if you are laid off" and "enhanced severance--extra $ that the company offers you in exchange for a release of claims". In those cases, the "standard" severance portion, usually a certain number of weeks of pay based on length of service, is the part that the Unemployment Office factors in. For example, if you received 4 weeks of salary as your severance, you would not be able to collect unemployment for those 4 weeks. However, it is my understanding that if you received an "enhanced" benefit that you normally weren't "entitled" to by your personnel manual (example: 5% of your salary), the "enhanced" part of the severance would not count against your unemployment claim. (Please note that I am not an employment lawyer, nor do I work for Unemployment so you'll need to research this further.) Good luck!

[Reneeme63]

Hello,

I signed a release to receive severance, and I am able to receive unemployment at the same time as the severance due to signing the release. However, I do not believe that unemployment would be retroactive for you going back to when you were first unemployed, however, it is worth asking about when you file.

On a side note, I had no luck filing by phone, I had to go to one of the Unemployment offices (and I had to get there before they opened). Also, if they back date one week (which they did for me,,,,,,it took me a week to succeed at filing), make sure you file your weekly claim right away (during the week that you filed as opposed to waiting until Sunday), otherwise, you will have to go back into the office and reinstate your claim (this happened to me!).

Good luck!

[scarletfire]

Explain the situation to the Dept of Unemployment. They can have a manager evaluate whether to allow approval for back pay. If you signed a release to obtain the severance pay you are still eligible for unemployment for that time period. The question is whether they'll allow you to file for this retroactively. My understanding is that they have some flexibility to do so.

Best of luck!

[spartan777]

Hi. I'm wondering what happened with this? I am in the EXACT same situation. They told me it would be up to 8 weeks to review my claim - during which time I would not receive any benefits at all. Meaning no income for me - my severance ran out already. What happened? Any advice? I thought I was alone in this.