UNEMPLOYMENT: BENEFIT BASICS
Two bright-red phones at the Verdugo Jobs Center in Glendale are direct lines to the state offices that manage unemployment insurance, the benefit that can be a lifesaver after a layoff.
But because of record unemployment levels in the state, picking one up doesn’t mean you’ll get through any time soon.
“Sometimes people call all day,” said Carolyn Anderson, manager of the center.
Calling from home is as bad if not worse, and don’t even think of applying in person -- the unemployment insurance offices were closed to the public years ago.
The deputy director of the program, Deborah Bronow, admits that the state’s booklet on unemployment benefits doesn’t help applicants much.
“We know they don’t read it,” Bronow said. “It’s big, and we’re the government.”
Even the table of contents is confusing.
So consider this Unemployment 101, a consumer guide to the basics of the labyrinthine program that can be key to keeping you in your home and putting food on the table.
It’s your personal red phone. Keep it for emergencies.
Eligibility
The basic rule: Unemployment insurance benefits -- which are funded mostly by employer payroll taxes and federal dollars -- are for people who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. And in this sorry economy, that’s a lot of people.
If you are fired for cause or just plain quit, the benefits could be denied.
Also, an applicant usually has to have been a staff employee.
“Independent contractors are not eligible,” said Matthew Goldberg, an attorney at the Employment Law Center of the Legal Aid Society in San Francisco.
There is a minimum earnings requirement as well. To collect benefits, you would have had to earn at least $900 in wages during a fiscal quarter in what the program calls the base period.
Here’s one of the points where it gets confusing -- that base period is a year long, but it skips the most recent full quarter. In other words, if you filed for unemployment benefits in January 2009, your base period would run from October 2007 through September 2008.
When in doubt, it’s probably easier to apply for the benefits and let the Employment Development Department, which oversees the program in California, figure out whether you made the grade.
If you’re turned down for any reason, you have the right to file an appeal within 20 days to ask for a hearing.
Moving out of state after a layoff doesn’t disqualify you -- the program is based on wages and payroll taxes, not geography. If you move after starting to get benefits in California, simply continue to follow the rules of the program and send in your biweekly claim forms to the same office as always. If you apply after moving, the process might get a bit tricky but is usually doable.
Bottom line: It’s important to remember that these benefits are not just for the poor. If you are laid off and meet the requirements, you’re eligible for them, even if you happen to have a gazillion dollars in the bank.
When to apply
In the vast majority of cases, the time to apply is right after losing your job, even if you get severance pay. That’s because severance pay is usually not considered wages. An exception is if your company continues paying you regular wages for a while, even though you don’t have to show up, and then starts paying your severance. In that case, it’s usually better to wait until the regular wages stop. You probably wouldn’t get unemployment benefits for those paid weeks anyway.
How to apply
One word: online.
You can apply on the phone, but those lines are so tied up these days that it would be easier to get through to a radio contest.
What if you never had a computer at home or sold yours on EBay to get some needed cash?
“There are free computers at libraries and at the local jobs centers,” Bronow said, referring to the community centers throughout the state that usually have computers available for use at no charge. “I can’t emphasize enough that the place to file is online.”
Even if the applicant has never previously used a computer.
“I’ll bet there is a loving son or someone else in the family to help,” she said. “There are also faith-based organizations willing to help.”
Only a small percentage of laid-off workers aren’t eligible to apply online, including those who worked in more than one state during their base periods.
Bronow frowned upon commercial operations that charge a fee to file an application.
“They say they can help you get benefits faster, but they can’t,” Bronow said. “There’s no reason to pay an intermediary.”
The online address for starting the application process is https://eapply4ui.edd.ca .gov.
The benefit check
The weekly amount you get in benefits depends mostly on how much you got paid when you were working.
If you made just the minimum amount of earnings required to qualify for unemployment -- $900 during a three-month, fiscal quarter -- you’d get $40 a week in benefits.
The maximum is for people who earned at least $11,674.01 during their best quarter. They get $450 a week. However, under the just-signed federal economic stimulus package, the benefits will be going up $25 across the board.
Also under the new law, the first $2,400 in benefits this year will not be subject to federal taxes. None of the benefits are taxed by the state.
The basic benefit period lasts 26 weeks. But because of hard times, it’s been extended to a maximum of 59 weeks for most recipients.
The work requirement
Unemployment compensation is not meant to be a free ride. While getting the benefits, you’re required to be looking for a job. In fact, you have to send in a form every two weeks stating that you’re doing just that, and willing to accept “suitable employment” if offered, according to the California Unemployment Insurance Code.
“Suitable” is “work in the individual’s usual occupation, or for which he is reasonably fitted,” says the code.
Therefore, a corporate executive would not be forced to take a job at McDonald’s if offered.
“That would interfere with this person’s search for a job that would use his experience and that he would keep at length,” said Cynthia Rice, director of litigation and advocacy for the nonprofit group California Rural Legal Assistance.
What you’re not supposed to do is spend your entire time lounging by the pool, writing the great American screenplay or concocting a business plan for a future endeavor.
If you do find temporary work, it might wipe out some or all of your benefit for that period. The state allows you to keep $25 or 25% of your pay for the week, whichever is higher. The rest is deducted from your check.
If the amount subtracted is more than you would have gotten from unemployment compensation, your benefit for that week is zero.
The form
Every two weeks, the state Employment Development Department sends participants a form that must be filled out.
It asks whether you’ve looked for work during the last couple of weeks, accepted a job, earned any wages (which might be subtracted from the benefit) and more.
Although not as difficult reading as the plan brochure, the form can be confusing.
In fact, up to 30% of the forms mailed back to the agency have some kind of error on them that kick them out of the department’s automated system.
“They’re sent back to us before the last day of the period, they’re not signed, the little circles that are supposed to be filled in are marked with Xs instead,” Bronow said, naming some of the typical errors.
An error of this type often causes a delay in issuing a benefit check. And then the recipient might well get on the phone and call the agency, contributing to the line overload.
Many of the problems with the forms could be eliminated if they were put online, but that’s not going to happen soon.
“Maybe in the next two, three years,” Bronow said.
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Here’s a thought: Let’s take the tech people who are out of work and have them design an online system sooner.
Unemployed writers could translate department booklets into language that can be understood by humans.
And laid-off accountants could staff unemployment insurance offices, reopened for in-person help.
All it would take is money, and a way around tape as red as those direct-line phones.
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BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX
Benefits eligibility
In order to receive unemployment insurance benefits after losing a job, these requirements must be met:
* The job ended because of a layoff, or otherwise through no fault of your own.
* You were not an independent contractor.
* You earned at least $900 in a fiscal quarter of what the state refers to as a base period.
Source: Times research
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Benefits help
Important websites and phone numbers:
* Apply for unemployment insurance benefits at https://eapply4ui.edd.ca.gov.
* Information line (usually busy) for state unemployment insurance offices: (800) 300-5616.
* Official booklet at www.edd.ca.gov/unemployment.
Click on “Guide to Benefits and Employment Services” in the language of your choice.
* No-cost help from the Employment Law Center at (415) 864-8208.
Source: Times research
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Preparing to file
You can streamline the process by having the following information ready before filing for unemployment benefits.
* Social Security number
* Driver’s license number
* Name, address and phone number of most recent employer
* Last date you worked for the employer, and your salary
* Reason you are no longer working there
* List of all other employers, if any, over the last 18 months. Include dates you worked at each and your wages.
Source: California Employment Development Department
