CA Continued Claim Form - Employer Info (collecting, qualify, fill)
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I have been unemployed for a few months and getting benefits from CA. So far the continued claim forms have been easy to fill out, since I've made no money at all.
Now I'm starting to earn a little by doing short-term contract work, e.g. editing a paper for someone off of craigslist.
The instructions on the form are clear: enter the amount of hours you worked, the money you made, as well as the name and complete mailing address of the employer you worked for.
I would feel creepy asking for the address of random people I'm doing online work for. But my main issue is: why do they need to know this? Will they be contacting the employer for any reason? I want to know because it is a BIG DEAL for my professional reputation to not go around advertising that I'm getting unemployment benefits, since that implies that I was fired (which I was). No one would voluntarily tell a prospective or new employer that they were fired from their last job.
It's such a big deal to me that I would prefer to sell my stuff, leave my apartment and move in with a bunch of roommates to save money (after forgoing benefits), than need to disclose to everyone who pays me anything that I was fired (I need a reason for asking their address after all). I'm uncomfortable with CA even having this information.
In short: is CA allowed to disclose my status to anybody and under what circumstances?
Are you getting an actual paycheck from a company with taxes removed or is it an individual paying you cash? Anyway even if it is freelance, it IS work and therefore it has to be claimed (I'm pretty sure anyway). I couldn't imagine CA disclosing any details as to why you're unemployed, they just need to know so they can decrease your benefits appropriately. In your case it may be considered self-employment?
Also, couldn't you just tell these people that you were laid off from your previous occupation? There's plenty of reasons to be unemployed that don't have to involve being fired.
CA does quite often contact employers listed on your earnings form, primarily to verify your employment. I've read this numerous times on another California forum. Quite embarrassing for the employee, but it's what CA does.
A way around this would be to not claim benefits for any week in which you've earned money. CA will close the claim when benefits are not paid. You then need to call CA to reopen the claim. You can tell CA you weren't available for the week you didn't claim because you were working or make up some other excuse for not claiming that week. As long as you are not claiming benefits, you don't need to report income or employer.
They need it because when the income ends, they have to make sure that you weren't let go from this "new" employer for a disqualifying reason. Remember, a job is a job, even it's for 1 minute and you earn $1. It creates a new separation issue that needs to be adjudicated.
My advice: stop looking for stop gap work, and only focus on getting a job as good or better than you had before, and leave this type of work for when your benefits run out.
Also, get over the "I was fired" mentality. Since you're getting UI, your firing was for a trivial matter. LOTS of people get fired when they should have been laid off because employers are trying to control their UI tax increases.
In the HR world, just being out of work means somethings up. If you were laid off, some will think, "why you, and not someone else. Must mean you're not all that good, or it wouldn't have been you." If you quit without another job to go to, it means you were told to quit or be fired. So whether you are collecting UI or not, you're stigmatized because you are out of work, not because you were fired, laid-off, or quit.
Thank you for the responses. They are very helpful.
GlassJoe, I'm not getting any paychecks, though it's possible that a company will hire me as a contractor (and thus send me a check from the company account without withholding anything). If I can write self-employed, it would describe more accurately what I'm doing (rather than working for an "employer"). I'll see if I can find some info or rules about when this is okay.
Ariadne, I might just do that, thank you.
Chyvan, good point about being stigmatized no matter what. It's sad but I think it's true. It still feels worse to get fired, though.
Keep in mind, Chyvan is right. If you disclose (which you are supposed to do) you had been working when you reopen the claim, CA will check with that employer as to why the job ended and the validity of that separation. If you don't disclose you had been working, CA may find out about it later and then will ask you about the separation and contact the employer to verify your story - although this discovery could take a long time - especially if you are paid 1099. If this a W-2 job, CA will learn about it very quickly.
Working while collecting benefits creates a number of issues. You need to get over your embarrassment on being fired and collecting UE. It has happened to millions.
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