Always, always, go to the state where you are filing, and go through this process with a worker there. I have closed plants for years in several states, and there are some variances in their treatment of unemployment and retirement pensions. In most, the "employer contributary, non-employer contributary" was an issue only when the pension is going to be received in monthly increments. It does appear that in some cases, Indiana, and some other states do regard employer contributions as another type of wage, must obtain the information about the type of pension and it's exact source to make a decision about its effect on the claim, regardless of when you are taking it out.
All the states do this when you are drawing or about to start drawing it out in a regular monthly pension, when you are old enough, and at that time, a pension will generally severely curtail the amount of unemployment you are able to draw.
But in Illinois, I was rather sure that there is not an effect on the unemployment based on the pension rollover or withdrawal for a 24 year old, and I am standing amazed at what the OP has been told, would be fascinated to know whether this turns out to be accurate or not. The lady who handles the 'judications' is telling him, from the sound of it, that they will treat the pension as one weeks income. HUH?
But if that's really what they chose to do with him, I hope it works out for him. You are very right, Justy, in that sometimes it does seem that the people who work in our agencies are pulling things out of the air. Classic is the poor lady who called the office, asked if she had to report that she had begun receiving her retirement pension, and was told no, you don't report retirement. As I told her, the person at the unemployment office must have thought she was referring to Social Security retirement. And then many months later they found that she had been overpaid because of receiving her pension.
There's no possibility that the system will not be aware of your having received the disbursal, but in most cases, I still say it is not a reportable income that affects your unemployment benefits.
That's why I strongly advise everyone who is calling for information to the unemployment system to keep careful records of when they called and who they talked to, what they were told.
If you google this subject, you will get information that is all over the map. Get it from your own system. There is no downside to it, you can't keep them from knowing you got it out anyhow, so clear it with your state and your system.
