I currently am eligible for, and collect, partial unemployment in New Jersey. I only began working for this employer in 2012, after working for my last employer for nearly 6 years. I work ~20hrs per week, and earn $200. I have been collecting since the first week of December.
I am in a management position, and my team met all the goals for 2012, so I was eligible to receive a year end bonus of $1,750 total, divided among two separate checks ($750 and $1000). These checks do have taxes taken out of them, and are in addition to the $200 I earn every week by working.
I claimed the $750, plus my $200 in earnings, the last time I filed my benefits. Since I had not yet earned the $1000 check at the time of the last claiming, I was to claim that this week. Something happened with their system, forcing me to call in an speak to a service rep. Everything was fine, just some kind of glitch in the system, and she then handled my claim for this week over the phone.
When I told her I had $1,000 bonus pay + $200 earnings, she put me on hold, and then came back and told me: "Bonuses do not have to be claimed, they are viewed as gifts." I told her it was taxed and I did not want to screw up anything if NJ Unemp. gets a copy of all my pay for the year, and it does not add up to what I have claimed... do you know what I mean? She insisted that bonuses do NOT have to be claimed, and processed my $200 earnings, sans the bonus.
Is this correct??
Has anyone else had a bonus and claimed it (or NOT claimed it) on your Unemployment??? Won't this be caught if they cross reference my wages from my employer VS what I claimed I had made each week on unemployment?
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