I know there’s a lot of folks on here who have applied for UI but I’ve actually lost track of who got paid vs who didn’t.
If you’re working on getting UI, or receiving it, I can use your help to get a better picture of the frustrations by state. It really will help! If you’re willing, can you let me know below:
Your state(s)
When you applied
How frustrating the application was - did the site go down? did you get through?
If you are applying as a freelancer or a W2 worker
any special circumstances (COVID diagnosis, lost hours but not job, immunosuppressed, etc)
If any money has materialized yet and what date (how long since application)
did the extra $600 show up?
Any communication from the state employment office you’ve gotten
Feel free to link me to a journal post if you’ve covered this!
I think I’ve covered this in my journal but not all in one place?
My state is PA I had three jobs when this started – all W2, 1 full time, 2 part time, one of the part time fairly regular hours, one of them wildly variable. I was furloughed from one part time job (running store), and work completely dried up in the other (pet sitting). I maintained and occasionally increased hours at full time job (vet office) and eventually (like 10 days ago) got a raise.
I applied for unemployment when my hours were eliminated at the running store but before I was officially furloughed – I think that came a week later. I applied March 16th or somewhere right around there. The site was frustrating. It wasn’t unbearably slow, but it was NOT set up for someone with multiple jobs. I first gave it information for running store job. Then it asked if I was still employed elsewhere. I said yes and it prompted information for full time job. There was no way for me to enter information for the 3rd job.
My approval letter and PIN number came the day before the deadline for me to enter it. I was “approved” but have to make under a certain amount each week to qualify for actual benefits. I think it’s somewhere around $440 for me. The problem is I still make that in a typical week at full time job. I was just working an additional 15-20 hours per week most weeks, and I need some of that money to cover expenses (cause debt).
Finally there was a week in mid April where I only worked about 30 hours and came in under the benefits threshold. I qualified for $78 in compensation, which I received about 4-5 days after submitting my income for that two week block on the UA website. The following Monday, I woke up to find 2 $540 deposits in my account – I’m assuming that since I qualified for assistance during a given 2-week period, I also qualified for the extra $600 those weeks. I know I signed up to have taxes withheld, so I’m assuming that’s what the lesser amount is from? Or maybe I didn’t qualify for the whole thing? So I didn’t get any money until about 6 weeks after I first submitted my application, BUT, I received it 4-8 days after submitting my report for a qualifying income week.
In any case, since getting the raise and my hours steadying out to ~38/week and a tiny amount of pet sitting is picking back up, I’m going to figure out how to withdraw from unemployment, because I don’t expect to come under threshold for receiving benefits again, and even if I am not making what I normally would, I am now covering basic expenses.
Mine is a mess right now. More in my journal but here’s a summary.
I’m in Virginia, I applied as a freelancer in March when the shop that sells my clothes was shut down. The application crashed several times and was super frustrating. I got denied traditional UI and then after I think 2 weeks of limbo finally got instructions for CARES act stuff and applied there. Then last Friday I got paid a lump sum for the first time that I think was for the 8 weeks since I applied. The lump sum includes the extra $600 weekly.
Then I got a message saying they overpaid me for “1 or 2 weeks” that the CARES act didn’t apply. The message was super general and unhelpful. I have no way of knowing what was what because I asked them to take taxes and I can’t find anywhere in the system to get a breakdown of anything. That message said they’d take the overpayment out of future payments and I didn’t get paid this week so
Now it’s even more of a mess because I sent a question in early April about how to report my income as a business owner and now the VA people keep thinking I should have applied in DC (part of my business is selling products as a vendor to a brick and mortar in DC that I do not own. It’s a vendor relationship), even though I keep telling them I’m a VA business license holder, tax payer, resident, my business operations are here, etc. so I’m waiting to hear back about that. I wish I’d never asked a damn question, it’s so infuriating. And on top of that clusterfuck they still have never answered my question in the first place about reporting.
So…yeah. Idk what’s going on.
I’m worried they’re going to make me withdraw, pay back the Va money and file in DC. Then DC is going to deny me because it makes no sense to file there, and then I’ll have to start all over. I may try to call the person I’ve been emailing with if I can get her direct number.
He was laid off on, I believe, 3/31 due to Covid, and filed same day. I think it took him a few hours to be able to get the site up, but he was able to file eventually.
He was a W2 worker and this was a straight up Covid layoff, not a furlough, he specifically asked that of the HR drone who called him.
Basically it went like this:
When he filed, the confirmation email said “if you haven’t heard anything within 2 weeks, call us.” He did not hear anything within 2 weeks, so he called. But he was unable to get through on the phone for a long time. When he finally was able to get through, he got a recording that asked him for his PIN. Here, the PIN, or instructions on how to get a PIN, apparently is included on your determination letter. Since he was calling BECAUSE he did not get a determination letter, he was unable to get a PIN, therefore unable to get help via phone. Not Helpful and Very Frustrating.
I think about 2 1/2 weeks in, he got an email basically saying “we have your application, we know you probably haven’t heard anything, we are backed up, we want you to certify anyway on X date.” The website opens for certification each day at 5 a.m., so we were up at 5 a.m. in hopes that the website would not be overloaded and crashing yet. This worked; he was able to certify. I believe that at this time, he was also given the option of choosing direct deposit and putting his bank info in; up until now there had been no way to do that. Some people we know were mailed a debit card in advance of hearing for sure if/what they were getting, but we did not get this.
A couple days later, unemployment money turned up in his account. He had still not gotten a letter saying “you are approved and this is your amount.” Rough math seemed to indicate that this was more or less what the table on the website (which shows “if your salary was X your amount is Y”) said it would be, plus the extra $600, x 2 weeks, - taxes.
A couple days after that, he got his letter saying what his amount was and what his official certification date was.
So far, everything has worked as it should since then. We continue to get up at 5 a.m. every other Tuesday to certify him online, since we are paranoid that if we wait until normal people are up, the site will crash or become overloaded. Apparently this is still happening for some folks. And, money continues to turn up on schedule.
So, overall, I think this is one of the better experiences. We feel very fortunate.
I am not getting unemployment, but I am getting the special pandemic relief money from New York state for reduced income due to coronavirus. LMK if you want my info.
@bucketsofrain I’m assuming you’re talking about PUA? Yes! I do want to know about this…PLEASE DM me if you don’t want to say anything publicly. (Or leave a voice message if you’re cool with your voice being on air) I would love to know how long it took you to apply, when you got it, and if it’s consistently appeared. Etc!
Mine as a W-2 employee that was working a few hours every couple weeks (that put me over my unemployment limit) was seamless. The online portal was easy to figure out and claiming income irregularly didn’t slow anything down for me, it just prompted a couple questions about my hours being related to COVID.
