Unemployment Benefits - Overpayment? (wages, earnings, office)

[jdljr]

Originally Posted by jdljr

Yes, the tax issue should come into play when you file your 2009 taxes. ESC will not withhold taxes on UI unless specifically requested. If requested, it's an automatic 10% for fed and whatever percentage you tell them for state.

You're right with your computation. Your high quarter of $14,000 would be used to compute your weekly benefit amount (take your high quarter of earnings and divide by 26. Any number over $494 just gets paid the $494 since that is the maximum weekly benefit). Then, to calculate whether you'd be eligible for an extension, your total base period wages would need to equal 1 1/2 times your high quarter.

A word of advice...you'll want to get in and file your new claim ASAP if you haven't already. Beginning July 5th the base period changes and claims filed with that effective date and later will have the first quarter 2008 fall off and not be included, instead picking up first quarter 2009. So in that scenario, your $14,000 quarter will not be able to be counted, AND, if you had no wages beyond your $9,000 second quarter, you would not qualify to file a new claim, since you would not have wages in at least two quarters of the base period.

Also, another misconception is that everyone gets 26 weeks of regular UI. Regular UI benefits are paid for a minimum of 13 weeks and a maximum of 26. You can approximate your duration by adding up your total base period wages, divide that number by the high quarter in the base period, then multiply that number by 8.66. Round down to the nearest number to arrive at your duration. Then, the extensions, if eligible are 80% and 50% of your regular UI (for example, if you got $494 for 26 weeks, your first extenstion would be $494 for 21 weeks (80% of regular UI)...then your second extension would be $494 for 13 weeks (50% of original UI)). Beyond that, the Extended Benefits (EB) should be 80% of your original UI, however that is paid with federal money and they are supposed to more strictly enforce the work searches, calling you into the office periodically to go over your work search records.

Just more info to confuse you, and others!

[binsyyyy]

i just recently got placed on permanent bed rest until my pregnancy has ended.i just recently moved to florida and i'm trying to file a claim here the problem is i called the neyork unemployment agency to see if i have any money left with them.and i was told that there was an overpayment of 2000 dollars this includes penalties..I want to know if i file a claim with florida will they deny me because of this overpayment issue with newyork.....

[jdljr]

Originally Posted by binsyyyy

i just recently got placed on permanent bed rest until my pregnancy has ended.i just recently moved to florida and i'm trying to file a claim here the problem is i called the neyork unemployment agency to see if i have any money left with them.and i was told that there was an overpayment of 2000 dollars this includes penalties..I want to know if i file a claim with florida will they deny me because of this overpayment issue with newyork.....

They might, not sure.

The bigger issue is: are you really eligible for unemployment? Unemployment is not a medical insurance policy for if you have to be off work. Unemployment is an insurance policy for those that have lost their jobs due to no fault of their own. You must be ABLE, AVAILABLE, and WILLING to work. If you're on bedrest, doesn't sound like you're ABLE and AVAILABLE.

If you file your weekly certifications, telling them you're available when you're really not, you're potentially creating yet another overpayment issue for yourself...not to mention the fraud issue.

[redphyllis]

I worked with the Census while on unemployment. The job lasted approx 9 weeks. Will this count towards my receiving EB. My UI claim expired this week and I am nervous.

[jdljr]

Originally Posted by redphyllis

I worked with the Census while on unemployment. The job lasted approx 9 weeks. Will this count towards my receiving EB. My UI claim expired this week and I am nervous.

It depends when it was. If your Census employment was June 30, 2009 or prior, it may be able to be counted toward establishing a new benefit year, as that would fall into the current regular base period. Wages earned after June 30, 2009 may still count if you can't establish a new benefit year using the regular base period but CAN establish a new benefit year using the alternate base period.

If your benefit year just ended, I would encourage you to visit your local ESC office right away to attempt to get a new benefit year established. Let them know you had intervening employment (Census). I trust that, if you were doing your weekly certifications while working for the Census, you were reporting any earnings each week.

If you can establish a new benefit year, either with the regular or alternate base period, they will establish a new, regular UI claim for you. If you can't establish a new, regular UI claim (not enough wages in either the regular or alternate base period) then they would set up a new benefit year for you, in order for you to go back and collect any remaining money on your previous claim (if there is any).

If you can't establish a new benefit year, and don't have any money remaining on your previous claim, at this point your UI benefits have ended.

[lexiace]

i have been unemployed all of 2009 i recievedd $16,900.00 in ui payments without taxes taken out
how much taxes will i owe for this in the state of florida also i am on tier 2 of unemployment benefits
will i get any more ui benefits

[jdljr]

Originally Posted by lexiace

i have been unemployed all of 2009 i recievedd $16,900.00 in ui payments without taxes taken out
how much taxes will i owe for this in the state of florida also i am on tier 2 of unemployment benefits
will i get any more ui benefits

ESC consultants are not tax professionals, you should consult your tax person to find out your potential tax liability. I will say that for the year 2009, the first $2,400 in benefits is not taxable by the feds, compliments of the stimulus package. Anything over that is taxable, and I know in NC, they tax it all for 2009. Not sure how it works when you receive unemployment from one state but live in another.

ESC makes it easy to have taxes withheld from your Unemployment benefits so that you're not in this predicament at tax time. On the form, if someone chooses to have federal taxes withheld it's an automatic 10%. For state, the claimant lets us know how much (a percentage, usually 5-6%). There are other variables that will play into how much your tax liability may be, having received only unemployment benefits for the year 2009.

[maureen arout]

How much weekly income are you allowed to earn while collecting unemployment benefit What amount of income needs to be reported?

[jdljr]

Originally Posted by maureen arout

How much weekly income are you allowed to earn while collecting unemployment benefit What amount of income needs to be reported?

ALL income needs to be reported, pre-tax. Your earnings allowance is usually 20% of your weekly benefit amount, so if you're getting $300 per week in unemployment, you'd be allowed to earn $60 per week and it would not affect your benefits. Anything over the $60 (or whatever your number is) would be deducted dollar-for-dollar from your weekly benefit amount.

[Drummer 99]

I was confused. The weekly allotment of earnings was $76. I thought that I didn't have to report anything other than amounts over that. Even though none of my weekly earnings exceeded that amount, they were not reported. I was wondering if I needed to contact the Unemployment office to inform them of this or should I simply claim extra money each week to make up the difference. Reporting more would mean a drop in benefits paid each week but I never wanted nor do I want to hide anything or worse yet, have a fraud issue to deal with