Unemployment claim. How picky can I be?

[NC User]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NC

Until five years ago I was employed full time at one company for 20 years. The company eventually experienced financial difficulties and I was reduced to part time (two days a week). To make up the difference I accepted a second part time job for the other days of the week. At the end of November, the first job kept one part time employee and let everyone else go, including me. This morning I submitted a claim online for unemployment.

I still have my other part time job and I don’t want to quit it. I have some seniority there now and there’s a very good chance that within six months they will offer me full time hours. To qualify for unemployment I must be actively looking for work, but in order to keep my part time job I’m only available Thursday, Friday, and weekends. I’m not sure how easy it will be to find a job that can accommodate those requirements, but I am making a serious effort to find one.

To remain eligible for unemployment, will I be required to be willing to accept any job offer, even if it means I have to quit my part time job? I’m also concerned that it might look like I’m being intentionally picky so that nobody will hire me and I can collect unemployment without actually having to work. I’ll bet that’s a not-too-uncommon tactic.

I just want to keep my part time job, find a second part time job on the other days I’m available, and in the interim collect the unemployment I’m entitled to.

Does anyone see any potential problems here?

 

[FlyingRon]

You're not supposed to be picky. You should be searching for full-time work ACTIVELY rather than using unemployment to coast working part time hoping the employer increases your hours. The unemployment department is going to want to see that you actually have applied for jobs (at least two a week) and what the status of those applications are. While it appears you can just sandbag it by reporting two jobs you applied for every week, they will after a bit come back and demand proof and that can backfire against you.

 

[commentator]

Frankly, I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over it. Because you said, "In the interim, I just want to collect the unemployment I'm entitled to." I suspect that won't be much at all, or none. And that is not because of your job searches or lack of them or diligence of them, it will be because of your other job.

You've signed up for unemployment benefits. The first thing they're going to do is find out if you are monetarily eligible. Your absolute max possible amount of weekly benefit you could draw in your state is about $350. You were working part time during the counted quarters ( the first four of the last five completed quarters on the date you filed). But with two part time jobs, you may set up for North Carolina's weekly benefit amount.

So you were told, or it was in the reading that you are required to make, that now you have signed up, you will begin, after the first calendar Sunday through Saturday week has passed since the claim was filed, to make weekly certifications for benefits. This process has a first question which is, "During the week, did you do any work? (worded somehow) And then how much, in gross wages did you make?"

Weeks for unemployment purposes are always considered Sunday through Saturday, regardless of how you get paid or when. The amount made is figured for the week it was actually worked in. So if you work part time, say, 24 hours a week at $16 per hour, which is how they'd figure it, regardless of whether you are salaried or hourly, your gross pay would be such that you would not qualify for any unemployment insurance that week, regardless of your job search activities.
You made more in gross wages than you would have been able to draw in a weekly benefit amount. No check for that week.

If, during the whole calendar year from the date this claim was filed, your weekly gross earnings, figured as I said, are ever less than your WBA (say $350 for example) then you could file to reopen your claim and certify for that week in which you made less than you could've drawn, and you'd be paid a "partial unemployment" check.

You would be allowed to make a certain amount, and then the rest would be deduced from your weekly benefit amount, and you're eligible to receive the difference. This is what is called partial unemployment benefits. And you have to re-open your claim for this each time it happens, because each week that you submit a certification showing too much money to draw, your claim becomes inactive. If you fail to submit a certification each week, the claim goes inactive till you reopen it.

Of course, each week that you certify for benefits, you are also asked "Did you quit a job or turn down any work this week" (in some verbal form). If you are fired from, or quit your part time job that you are now working, and you fail to tell the unemployment system, the records will quickly cross match and show up that you were working this job, how much you were being paid, and when you stopped working there. Expect a call from the fraud unit.

Whether someone is making a sincere job search is quite subjective. But since unemployment benefits are usually not very much money, not expected to last long, and not needs based, in that there are very strict rules that govern how you get them, regardless of need, it would be dumb of anyone to not go about at least minimal efforts to comply and do the required job searches. After all, if you found a better job than the part time one you still have now, with better pay and better hours, you'd take it, wouldn't you? Why not, instead of trying to put a bunch of silly restrictions on your job searches, look for something else better, and then decide, once you have actually found such a job, and actually been offered such a job, if you want to keep your precious part time job where you "might" be put on full time later?

The rules state that you must be able, available, and actively seeking equivalent employment. This means equivalent to the job you lost. So you can't demand more pay or less travel than what you were being paid and how far you were traveling. You could be willing to accept part time, given your old job, or you could be able to accept full time for better pay at another job.

They're not going to over-analyze what you have looked for, your sincerity in doing the interviews, etc. This would be a silly waste of time for the agency. They have work search requirements. Most semi intelligent people can manage to meet these work search requirements without having to specify way before it might ever become an issue that they would or wouldn't take this or that or this shift or these days of the week. It's not necessary that you go into all that with the agency in order to be perfectly honest or before the situation has ever come up.

But your issue is going to be a whole lot more of whether you are going to be able to draw anything at all from unemployment based on the part time job you wish to continue working. Not to mention it would be beyond silly. But the issue that will be paramount is NOT what kind of job you want to search for, what do I tell the unemployment system, it's how much money did I make in gross wages each week and can I draw partial benefits for this week.

Any time you are called in during a claim, or it is requested that you participate in a job searching activity, if you refuse to cooperate, your claim will be stopped. Otherwise, they don't check out the innermost feelings of your heart, just whether you've made any wages, which they can see, or complied with the work searches, which is your job to keep up with and manage. Do not apply for any job you don't want or couldn't work. But do apply for something. See?

 

[Chyvan]

You're worried about the wrong thing

I still have my other part time job and I don’t want to quit it.

There's a high probability that you're not going to collect a nickel of UI money because you're working what looks to be 3 days per week.

 

[NC User]

When all of this started, I was actually laid off completely from the first job. I almost immediately found the second part time job and shortly after that applied for partial unemployment. I did receive benefits for a few weeks. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to pay a bill or two. After only a few weeks the first job brought me back to work part time, so between the two part time jobs I didn’t receive any further benefits. That went on for another couple of years before the first job let me go permanently last month. I just assumed since I received benefits then, I’d receive them now. Like I said, it's not much, but it's something.

Honestly, since applying this morning I'm starting to have second thoughts about the whole thing and whether I even really want another job. I may just drop it. But I was very confused about certain parts of the process, and I thank you, commentator, for explaining it so thoroughly!

 

[NC User]

One more question, please.

As I implied earlier, right after I began my claim for UI something happened which has caused me to rethink everything. I've now made up my mind. I don't want another job and I want to cancel my claim. I don't see anything at desncc.com where I can do that. I've called twice and both times I was put on hold until I finally gave up. I'll keep calling if I have to, or just go to the office, but I'm hoping someone here can answer my question.

To cancel a claim can I just stop certifying or is there a more official process? At my part-time / only job, I filled in for a co-worker on vacation last week and ended up making over twice as much as usual so I won't have any benefits for the first week anyway.

 

[FlyingRon]

You don't recertify and they will stop sending you checks. You don't have to officially declare you were reemployed or just giving up looking.

 

[NC User]

You don't recertify and they will stop sending you checks. You don't have to officially declare you were reemployed or just giving up looking.

Thank you very much, FlyingRon, that sure is what I was hoping for.

To everyone else, thanks again to you as well for helping me.