Unemployment benefits while working

[kramer1234]

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

I wait tables at a restaurant in a resort town. So for last few years I get partial benefits in the spring/fall and full benefits in winter months. Benefit amount of $430.

I am currently completely unemployed as of Oct. 20th, 2011. I recently had a phone interview last week that my earnings were different from what my employer reported. He said it was from wage crossmatch audit. and they were contacting my empoyer for weekly wages. When I had my interview he said I was reporting too much income. He thinks that my employer only sent them my hourly pay when they requested my earnings and my tips werent showing. Then he said that they would have to re-contact my employer for the right earnings.

I know that some weeks during the year when I worked I might have not reported the right amount. Sometimes I forgot to right down tips/hrs so I had to go by memory. I'm thinking that I could be off by maybe $500 to 1,000 at the most over the course of 16 partial weeks. I always answered the "did u work" question yes. And I always reported earnings but sometimes went by memory. I think even like 3 or 4 of those weeks I claimed too much. I probably only remembered to write everything down correct like 4or5 of those weeks.

I'm just concerned that they could find this fraudulent and deny me for a year? As of this wkend they'll owe me for 4 wks. I'm hoping any overpayment will just come out of those benefits and this will be seen as negligent/careless. Is this sort of careless in reporting seen as fraudulent especially when dealing with a claimant that reports hrs and tips? If I didn't report any income I could see being fraudulent but if anything I was just being careless and lazy with my recording.

 

[commentator]

Since you made a good faith effort to report your earnings, and if anything, you over-reported some weeks, based on what the employer is saying, as well as under reported some, I think you are in very little danger of being accused of fraud and penalized severely.

It appears that the employer is doing some sloppy book work, and that the unemployment tax unit is deep into their books, trying to determine what wages were actually paid to you on which weeks. They do this very frequently.

Work closely with them, be perfectly frank with them, and develop a relationship with them. Sit down with your calendar and try to figure out exactly what you made, if there are any weeks you flatly lied about, miscalculated by a considerable amount or something, 'fess up and be honest with them about those few weeks. They'll be looking into the employers books, as I said, and if the employer has documentation that you did work and worked this much, you had better admit you did it.

Because they'll audit the employer, too, and if you try to be too coy and say you didn't work this much this week when you really did, it will get one of you in trouble, and they'll be very motivated to say it is you, as you were the one who got most of the benefit from it.

You can plead confusion, you can plead a lack of understanding of how to report the wages, or which weeks they should have been reported, you can plead poor math skills, anything, but they're going to assume that you were lying and under-reporting your wages because you wanted more money. That's the long and the short of it. If you don't antagonize them, though, they'll let you get by with it, hopefully with just repaying the overpaid amount from the miscalculated weeks and without a penalty or sanction year.