Question about unemployment.

[ersatz]

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

I was fired from a job back in August of 2012 and went on unemployment. I filed every week and did all the stuff they asked. My unemployment ran out and went on Emergency Unemployment, I was offered a full time job and accepted the job on April 24th of 2013. I was sent a letter from the ESC office and was told to check my eligibility to go in on May 1st at a certain time and meet with somebody, so I did. I told the agent of my job offer and acceptance on May 1st and I also informed him the job didn't start until the 21st of May. He told me to continue to file as I have been, there was no need for me to continue to look for work as I had a job lined up so I didn't and continued to file as he instructed. I got a letter last week saying I was randomly selected for an audit of the week of May 5th-11th and I had send in work search history and all that. Well I contacted the ESC office by email as while I am at work I can't use a cell phone or have access to external internet, (call center job). I sent them an e-mail explaining what the agent told me. I have been in contact with them this week, as I get an e-mail when I get home from work and reply, so we have only spoken 2 times really. Anyway they said that if I verified I looked for work and didn't then I may be charged with fraud, I was just going by what the agent told me to do. I have NOT filed since I have been back to work, I stopped filing the week before I went back to work. I have no idea what to expect from this situation and it is making me really nervous and stressed out.

 

[swalsh411]

If the online form is like the paper form I found on their website, you should have answered "no" when asked if you had looked for work. You would have then been asked why, and your reason would be you found a job in a few weeks and were told by (Name) on (Date) that you did not need to look for work. Instead, you lied and said you had looked for work.

 

[ersatz]

well if that is in fact the case, it was not my intent to lie and have contacted the ESC office via email once again to see what can be done to correct the situation.

 

[commentator]

Do not be nervous and stressed out. These things do happen. Personally, I would not have answered "no" to the questions for those weeks, but I certainly would not have advised you to stop making job searches, even if you had been told you were going to be hired on this new job as of several weeks in the future. Here's my thinking on this. You sent out lots of resumes while unemployed, didn't you? If after you had been told you were hired and had not yet started your new job, thus fully eligible for unemployment during those weeks, you had received a call from one of the other places you'd applied to, asking you for more info, or to come in for an interview, you'd probably have gone and looked at that job, even though you have the promise of a job you haven't started yet.

No promise of a job is an ironclad thing until you have actually begun work. There's nothing that says you can't continue to look for work even having accepted one job. So what I'd have told you to do is keep making a few job searches to keep yourself legal, not quit and sit back and wait for the new job to start. I cannot tell you how many hundreds of times I've talked to people who thought they were going to start work on such and such date, and for some reason it didn't work out. It's not really prudent to shut down the whole work search process until you are actually working and are sure the job is going to work out.

What you'll get from the BAM unit (the ones who do these quality audits) is that they will set you up to get a decision about your eligibility during those two or three weeks you continued to file before you began work and stopped filing your claim. You should stress in every conversation with the unemployment system that you WERE fully able, available and actively seeking work during those weeks. You were not given good advice by the employee you spoke with, because there was no reason you could not accept a job, and you were fully willing to be as active as you needed to be in making a work search. In fact, you may be able to come up with places you did look for work. They may determine that you did go ahead and look for other jobs. Did you check your emails, look at the local jobs section of the paper, keep your resumes up on work search sites? Did you talk to anyone about a job, answer any ads or contacts? Think hard.
If a dream job had appeared on the horizon that was better than the job you were about to take, you'd certainly have checked on it, sent in a resume, wouldn't you?

At very worst, you might eventually be asked to repay the unemployment system for the weeks you stopped making a work search. If you want to tell them you didn't make one single tiny little job search activity or effort, they may say you weren't eligible for those weeks. But this would not be considered a fraud overpayment, as it was paid, you were acting as a result of a misunderstanding, rather than a carefully crafted plot to deceive the system and obtain benefits that way.

 

[ersatz]

Do not be nervous and stressed out. These things do happen. Personally, I would not have answered "no" to the questions for those weeks, but I certainly would not have advised you to stop making job searches, even if you had been told you were going to be hired on this new job as of several weeks in the future. Here's my thinking on this. You sent out lots of resumes while unemployed, didn't you? If after you had been told you were hired and had not yet started your new job, thus fully eligible for unemployment during those weeks, you had received a call from one of the other places you'd applied to, asking you for more info, or to come in for an interview, you'd probably have gone and looked at that job, even though you have the promise of a job you haven't started yet.

No promise of a job is an ironclad thing until you have actually begun work. There's nothing that says you can't continue to look for work even having accepted one job. So what I'd have told you to do is keep making a few job searches to keep yourself legal, not quit and sit back and wait for the new job to start. I cannot tell you how many hundreds of times I've talked to people who thought they were going to start work on such and such date, and for some reason it didn't work out. It's not really prudent to shut down the whole work search process until you are actually working and are sure the job is going to work out.

What you'll get from the BAM unit (the ones who do these quality audits) is that they will set you up to get a decision about your eligibility during those two or three weeks you continued to file before you began work and stopped filing your claim. You should stress in every conversation with the unemployment system that you WERE fully able, available and actively seeking work during those weeks. You were not given good advice by the employee you spoke with, because there was no reason you could not accept a job, and you were fully willing to be as active as you needed to be in making a work search. In fact, you may be able to come up with places you did look for work. They may determine that you did go ahead and look for other jobs. Did you check your emails, look at the local jobs section of the paper, keep your resumes up on work search sites? Did you talk to anyone about a job, answer any ads or contacts? Think hard.
If a dream job had appeared on the horizon that was better than the job you were about to take, you'd certainly have checked on it, sent in a resume, wouldn't you?

At very worst, you might eventually be asked to repay the unemployment system for the weeks you stopped making a work search. If you want to tell them you didn't make one single tiny little job search activity or effort, they may say you weren't eligible for those weeks. But this would not be considered a fraud overpayment, as it was paid, you were acting as a result of a misunderstanding, rather than a carefully crafted plot to deceive the system and obtain benefits that way.

Well after much discussion they verified my employment with my current job and said that everything would be fine and I am clear and good to go.