Attending School Full-time While Collecting Unemployment Benefits (MA)

[gravityproblems]

(Mass)

Hi, i've been collecting since july of 09, as well as attending night school full-time. my current school program is built around working a full-time 40 hr a week job, while attending school (full-time, 9credit hours) at night.

it was summertime when i got let go, and when i filed for unemployment i wasn't sure if i was going to be enrolled the following semester or not. i have since then returned to school while collecting benefits to finish my degree.

from what i understand, i am not doing anything fraudulent whatsoever, because my curriculum is based upon having a full-time work schedule, all classes are from 4pm on. i am available to work 40 hours no problem while finishing my degree.

i was told i still have two extensions left on my current claim, however there is very little hope in congress now passing the following extension at the end of this month. last june it took roughly 6 weeks of no income whatsoever before it passed. i cannot afford for that to happen again.

SO i applied for Section 30 a month or so ago. i finally heard back from them today and conducted to phone interview; i am to receive a notice in the mail stating whether or not i have been approved. I have been planning on applying for section 30 for a while now, although my school does support it, it is NOT advertised or talked about and i personally know zero people who have applied for this in my program (about 30% of the school population is collecting benefits). i would have applied sooner but i felt like if i didn't get approved they would discontinue my benefits once they received all my enrollment information.


Here's the Issue:

-if i don't get approved for section 30, will they terminate my benefits for being enrolled in school full-time even though i am and have been eligible to work full time since my college is a night school?
-If i receive the section 30 benefits (my current claim expires at the end of this month), will i be able to extend my claim even though congress most likely will not pass the latest unemployment extension bill?

any advice would be incredibly appreciated.

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

 

[cbg]

Sorry, but the crystal ball is out being recalibrated. The answer to both questions is maybe. Only the DUA can say for certain; we do not have access to enough information on your claim to say.

 

[commentator]

Section 30 is the training benefit based on the situation of the last place you worked, which must be permanently separating you due to a large downsizing or complete closure, must be an industry or employment where you are unlikely to find another job with this type of experience, and provides retraining benefits for people who are determined to be separated under these circumstances.

Also, the training you are taking must be determined to be a valid in-demand occupational skill, must be (according to what I've seen) full time, to be completed by a certain date and must be applied for before a year has passed since your separation. (This one we have a problem with since you were let go over a year ago. If you had not applied before July 2010, this may eliminate you totally.)

Whether you will be approved or not????How on earth could we know that?
Based on the length of time since your separation, I'd say not.

When you say that your training is based on a person who is working full time, so if it is actually part-time training...that could also be an issue that would lean toward not being approved. And since you say you know of no one else in the same type of training as you who is receiving Section 30 money, it may very well not be an approveable type of training under Section 30. Training schools usually encourage students to sign up if there is the slightest chance it will be approved. It's ready government money for them!

If you are approved for Section 30 you would be written a contract. The training contract will set up how many additional weeks you have to finish training and would set up additional weeks for you to draw (a number of weeks less than 26 weeks additional) if you have exhausted your whole claim, including any extensions.

In most cases, the Section 30 also pays the cost of the training. Since you have paid this out of pocket, very questionable as to whether they will approve the training, pay it to the school and reimburse you at this point.

This additional weeks of money ends exactly when you finish your training, or when you stop attending training, even if you do not get the whole 26 weeks or 13 weeks, or whatever they contracted you for.

This is, of course, IF you get approved. Notice I said that the weekly benefit until you finish the training kicks in only after you have drawn out all your weeks of regular unemployment and available extensions.

But surely you informed the unemployment system about your school attendance and got a school decision at the time you began didn't you? If you haven't been, then you are in some serious mess for failing to report your training, even though as you go through carefully pointing out that it is designed for a person who is working full time while training anyhow. This makes me wonder if you've reported it.

What about the school questions on your unemployment? Have you at least in the first week you were attending, informed the unemployment system? If not, this is a bad problem. There might be penalties for that, might stop everything, determine you overpaid. But hey, you've been drawing by my calculations, for about 72 weeks now.

In any case, you will not have another claim when the expiration date of this one rolls around, though you will have to go through the motions to apply if still receiving an extension. You don't have enough wages in the base period quarters at this point, no reearnings from covered employment. So pretty much what you'll get is the rest of the extensions you qualify for, which might be about 6 more months very best case scenario and no more.

Unless, of course, they did happen to certify you for Section 30. I am not betting on it. You probably have been told many times since you were separated that you had to apply for Section 30 within one year. It is a standard part of all the information provided on the state website, given out in informational materials, and told repeatedly to affected claimants.

 

[cbg]

FYI, MA has been known to flex the rules a bit when it comes to Section 30. If the poster has done ANY work at all during the past year to justify a new claim (not an extension on the old claim) they are likely to approve Sec. 30, though I agree that if he's doing extension to the old one and has no new wages to report for a new claim, an approval is unlikely.

 

[wrongsometimes]

some states will allow you to go to school (daytime too) while collecting unemployment - but you have to get it approved by the unemployment agency....

 

[cbg]

No kidding. What do you think we're talking about, wrongallthetime? That's exactly what the Section 30 program IS.