Unemployment insurance benefits

[berdonj]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Hawaii
My question is that my employer has not made any attempt to report my
low earning wages from the beginning of this year for 8 weeks. I've been told in written that I will be retro paid when it is reported. I have tried calling and leaving several messages an no luck. Is there anything else that can be done to get my employer to turn in my low earning wages to the Unemployment office?

 

[Banned_Princess]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Hawaii
My question is that my employer has not made any attempt to report my
low earning wages from the beginning of this year for 8 weeks. I've been told in written that I will be retro paid when it is reported. I have tried calling and leaving several messages an no luck. Is there anything else that can be done to get my employer to turn in my low earning wages to the Unemployment office?

you could send your pay stubs for the 8 weeks to unemployment.

 

[pattytx]

I'm confused, why do they need 2011 earnings? Are you on an alternative base period? UI benefits are normally paid on the FIRST four of the last four completed quarters/

 

[cbg]

First quarter 2011 earnings are not even DUE yet. Why would your employer have reported them already?

 

[commentator]

I think what the person is saying is that he has filed for benefits, having made less in wages for these weeks than he could have drawn in unemployment benefits. As in "partial unemployment."

What is usually required is confirmation from the employer that the person actually did work out the wages that he is reporting, earn the gross amount that he actually says he did, and then the partial claim weeks are processed.

However, it appears this person is peeved at the amount of time that this whole process is taking. Up to a month to get back-paid for these partial weeks is not uncommon. If he calls and asks the unemployment system worker, "Where's my check?" the worker may say that they have to wait for the wage information to be verified, and the employer has not yet returned the call to verify....

This will be dealt with by the unemployment system. It is NEVER the responsibility of the claimant to force the employer to comply with unemployment. If there is cooperation between the worker and the employer, the employer can actually fill out a form and send it electronically to the office, and the employee does not even have to file. But this is not mandatory. Of course the claimant is the most vitally interested person here, and is the one who is responsible for filing the claim if the employer will not, and for keeping the system reminded of their situation if they do not receive payments or at least a decision on the partial benefits in a timely manner. (They might possibly determine that the claimant was not eligible, but either way, he should hear something.)

Keep calling the unemployment system, reminding them that you have not yet received the partial unemployment for these weeks. You may want to send off a letter to your system's commissioner of Labor, possibly to your state representative, asking that they take an interest in helping you resolve this problem.

But also remember, unemployment benefits are not an income replacement program. If you couldn't make your payments and lost your house, if you had to go hungry because you didn't get paid unemployment benefits quickly, you cannot sue the system. There are some timeliness guidelines, you might mention this in your letter to the commissioner.

I gather you are now back at work for this same employer full time. Have you tried to talk to their HR department, asked what the issue is, why they have been unwilling to verify the wages?

It has been my experience that different people's definition of 'a very long time' is quite different. There are people who send in the forms and are on the phone the next day yelling "Where's my check?" Then there are people who will wait six months and quietly assume they have been declared not eligible without any official paperwork to say so. We do not know where in this continuium this OP falls.

 

[pattytx]

That's the only thing I can think of.

Most states I'm familiar with pay the partial benefits based on what the employee reports on his continuing claim form (and any audit occurs after the quarterly reports are processed), although it may be different in Hawaii, a state with which I'm not acquainted to this extent.

 

[commentator]

Upon re-reading, it appears that this OP may be waiting for the employer to actually file the partial unemployment forms for him/her.

If this is the case, he can talk to the unemployment office and see about filing these forms himself, using, as BP suggested, check stubs to verify income. He would need to request a backdate, explaning that the employer had given him reason to believe they were going to file the forms, but have not done so.

And this gets VERY sticky. If the employer has not filed the forms, did not intend to do so, had in no way told the employee they would take care of it, yet was on short hours for eight weeks, the employee would have needed to go on and file for partial benefits as soon as they noticed that their wages were less than they could make in unemployment benefits. There is nothing that mandates that the employer has do this for the workers.

Say the person's weekly benefit amount for unemployment in Hawaii sets up for $550 pr week. The employee's hours are cut to 30. The employee makes $19 per hour. He still made more in gross wages than he could make in unemployment benefits in a week, so no partial unemployment will be paid, even though he had his hours and paycheck reduced.

Remember that just because hours are cut, the gross wages made by the employee may never have fallen below the amount the claim would have set up for, and if this is the case, then the employee would not have qualified for partial unemployment, even though their hours were reduced.

At this time, the quarter has actually changed since the partial weeks were worked, this could affect the amount that the claim sets up for, and the unemployment system may decide it is just too late. But keep talking to everyone within the system to see what is going on. We are just making WAGs about this situation here, really.

 

[berdonj]

Continue Unemployment benefit question

Thanxs for the messages and Commentator helped me out big time The other question is that this retro pay actually started from last year 2010. I am a Substitute Teacher and I can be called in to work during the Summers to work 4 weeks of Summer School. I am on the Substitute List for work. Well, the Unemployment office told me I don't qualify for Unemployment benefits during the Summer cause there is no Summer School. They made a mistake of paying me benefits, therefor they made me pay half of it back due to some error on their part. Yes, I do qualify for partial benefits cause I'm working part-time status. Also, yes I am back to work and have been working part-time steady and looking for full-time jobs. Question is: Did the Unemployment office really have the right make me pay back funds for the Summer School for 2010 and any Summer School time period? This is what cause my claim for 2011 to be delayed and now I'm waiting to be retro paid for 8 weeks Jan and Feb 2011.

 

[commentator]

Question is: Did the Unemployment office really have the right make me pay back funds for the Summer School for 2010 and any Summer School time period? This is what cause my claim for 2011 to be delayed and now I'm waiting to be retro paid for 8 weeks Jan and Feb 2011.[/QUOTE]

Yes, they did. If they decided to do this, they made an overpayment decision on it, deciding to do it, and this decision followed the unemployment insurance laws of their state.

As I said, the wait for unemployment benefits, especially due to a previous overpayment, is not something you can protest against or complain to your state officials about.

If through their negligence, some sort of system glitch, you were being overlooked when you should be receiving benefits, that is something you could and should be hollering about, bringing it to everyone's attention, as that would be their fault.

But a delay in your benefits now due to a previous overpayment, even though they were the ones who overpaid you, is something they have no liability for. They have the situation in control, and you will be paid when the wait is over. What you really got back then was an interest free short term loan.