Okay, if you are drawing unemployment benefits after a lay off, where you are still "job attached" to your former employer, and they call you up on Friday and say, "Hey, John, we want you to start back to work next Monday," you will, of course, still file your claim for benefits for the week they called you. All unemployment weeks begin on Sunday and run through the following Saturday night. You will simply answer the question as of "No, I did not do any work, etc" You are eligible to draw your full benefits for the week. Then you go back to work on Monday. You work all week. The following Sunday or Monday, you simply DO NOT file for a week of benefits, because you have worked all the previous week. The claim will stop if you fail to certify for the week. You do not need to notify them.
But if you have been fired or have quit your past employer, have filed for benefits and been approved, and your employer calls you up and says, "Hey John, we've decided we want you to come back to work for us! All is forgiven!" (And this is remarkably common behavior once a former employee is approved for benefits and they find out their account is being charged) At this point, you decide, Do I want to go back to work for them? Keep in mind that they probably are going to try to fire you again in a way that will keep you from receiving benefits this time. But if you decide yes, I do want to go back, then you just do the same thing you did in the first case. You file for the week you did not work, you go back to work Monday and you do not file again after you've worked a week. That will stop the claim.
However, if you do NOT want to go back to work for these people, for whatever reason, you will still certify for the week, but on the part of the certification that asks, "Did you refuse an offer of work this week?" (In some fashion, they will always ask this, though it may not be in the exact wording I used) you answer YES. This will stop your claim. You will be instructed to contact your system, or else they will not send you a check, and they will contact you.
They will need to get a decision on WHY you have elected to refuse this offer of work. If it is your separating employer and you have been fired or had quit the job and have been approved, they VERY LIKELY will not require you to go back to work for this employer. The relationship between the two of you has been severed officially, and an offer of work from them again is probably not going to be considered suitable work. But either way, you must get a decision.
If you were laid off from this employer due to lack of work, and now they are calling you back to work, having work available for you, you pretty much will probably have to go back to them or your benefits will stop by decision. But let the unemployment office make that decision. In some circumstances, it may not be the case.
But hear me, DO NOT MAKE THIS DECISION YOURSELF. They decide officially if you are disqualified. Don't guess. Call the unemployment system and discuss any situation where you are not going to accept the job offer. DO NOT just decide to stop filing for benefits, do you hear me? I have watched many well meaning people self terminate their benefits when they would otherwise have continued to draw benefits. DO NOT assume anything.
Call the system, even if you have to hold the line a while to get hold of them, and ASK THEM, a live human being, about your situation DO NOT take the word of any of us here on line about what you will and will not get, should or should not do, except that I will emphasize that you certify for the week AFTER IT HAS PASSED. You answer the questions for that particular week, and if you have returned to work, you report that you have worked and made wages that week, even if you have not been paid for that work yet. They're not interested in when you received the call to call you back to work as much as they are interested in WHEN you have returned to work and have done work for which you will be paid that week.
If you do not want to return to work when the employer calls you, DO NOT just stop certifying. Call the unemployment system and let them determine which weeks you are entitled to.
