• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

Unemployed -- How would taking a temp job affect my benefits?

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

wasowicz

Junior Member
I currently collect UI in California after being laid off 6 months ago. I would like to take a temp job that would last for about 1 1/2 months. This job would pay much less than the job I initially was laid off. If I took the job and then went back on unemployment afterward, would my benefits be decreased (i.e., would they re-calculate the benefits due based on the lower wage of the temp job)? Would it make a difference if I was hired as a seasonal worker (with maybe limited benefits) or as a contractor? I would HUGELY appreciate any help -- it's just impossible to reach these people...
 


Banned_Princess

Senior Member
I currently collect UI in California after being laid off 6 months ago. I would like to take a temp job that would last for about 1 1/2 months. This job would pay much less than the job I initially was laid off. If I took the job and then went back on unemployment afterward, would my benefits be decreased (i.e., would they re-calculate the benefits due based on the lower wage of the temp job)? Would it make a difference if I was hired as a seasonal worker (with maybe limited benefits) or as a contractor? I would HUGELY appreciate any help -- it's just impossible to reach these people...

yes, you would be recalculated and they will use your highest average month in the last 4 quarters. depending on how long the temp job actually lasts you will be losing significant UI payments.

what difference do you think it would make being a seasonal worker?, and as an independent contractor, you wouldn't be eligible for UI benefits when you are done.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
In my state, which I grant is not California, just about every word Banned Princess said would be wrong.

Your UI claim lasts for one year. It will not be recalculated during that year, regardless of what you do or do not earn during that time. When that claim expired, a new claim can be filed if you worked long enough during the look-back period for the SECOND claim.

Unless CA is very different from my state, taking a temporary job can make your benefits last longer. You don't claim UI (or you claim a lesser amount) during the weeks that you work, which means that you don't run out of funds as fast, and meanwhile you are building wages for a new claim when the old one expired.

What's more, at least in my state, taking temp jobs gives you credibilty with the UI office when you claim that you really are looking for work.
 

Banned_Princess

Senior Member
I would yield to the advice of CBG.

I'm in NY and I read an article. It very well might be different in CA all states do handle their UI in different ways.
 

commentator

Senior Member
You know I've got to come in on this one!

When your claim was set up, six months ago, you were given a date, called your BYE (benefit year ending) date. It will be on all your paperwork and will probably be about a year from the date your claim was filed, say February somethingth, 2013. This is the date that your claim is good until. During that time, they will not recalculate your amount of benefits, no matter what you do in terms of work.

But working again at a temp job is a very good thing. In the first place, even though the job pays less than your old job that you were laid off from, it doesn't matter, it probably is more money than you would be making drawing weekly benefits. And if you work this temp job until you are let go from it, the job ends, whatever, then you will sign back up on your unemployment (called re-opening your claim) because you'll be re-opening the same claim you were on, receiving the same weekly amount, unless the new job lasts until after your ending date, that Feb 2013 date, whatever it is.

If you've drawn six months, you've probably hit the end of your regular unemployment benefits anyhow, and have started or are about to start on a tier of federal extension money anyway. If there were no federal extensions, the claim would just end at 26 weeks and you wouldn't have anything to draw, regardless of the situation, until after that BYE date had passed.

Then, at that time, you can re apply for benefits. They'd be recalculated, a new claim would be set up based on the first four of the last five completed quarters of work you had, (the quarters are passing, even while you are drawing) and then they'd ask another question. Do you have "re-earnings'? This means you have to have had some more covered wages made from a tax paying employer that you have earned SINCE your last claim was approved (say February , 2012.) If you don't have re earnings, you cannot begin drawing your new claim. You'd just finish out your extensions and be without a claim.

So what you are thinking about doing, working again at this temporary job and being laid off again when it ends is the BEST THING YOU CAN DO FOR YOURSELF RIGHT NOW. Hopefully, you'll find another good job soon that will pay as much as you used to be making and will no longer need unemployment insurance anyway. But whether or not you work this job, you are going to run flat out of benefits soon. And when you do, you'll not have another shot at them until you have worked again somewhere and made some re-earnings. Unemployment insurance money is not based on your personal situation, your need for it, but on the strict laws that govern its dispersal.

The federal extensions could end soon. They are not nearly as lenient about what jobs you have to accept when you are on an extension. If a job paying even low wages were to report to them that you refused work, the system might look at it harshly.

The only thing that would make your situation worse is if you took this temporary job, really didn't like it and quit it. Because if you quit the new job, regardless of how much less it is than your old job, or that you have been laid off due to lack of work and approved for benefits from your old job, the minute you finish the new job, or quit the new job, it becomes your "separating employer" When you re-open your claim you will be approved or denied based on your reason for leaving this last job. If you were let go because it was a temp job and it ended, then you 'll have a very easy time being approved. But if you quit it because you weren't making enough money or didn't like it, then you'll lose your benefit approval and can't go back on unemployment.
 
Last edited:

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top