CA Unemployment Benefit Question

[sandyclaus]

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

I recently filed an unemployment claim because my company laid me off in January of this year. When I received the UI award letter with my Quarterly Earnings Statement that tells me how much I earned in wages for each 3-month period in the qualifying period, I saw that it did NOT include my wages received for when I worked as an U.S. Census Bureau employee (Federal Government agency) for a short period of time last year. As a result, my weekly benefit amount was far less than I expected.

Is there a reason these wages do not show on the Earnings Statement provided by the CA EDD (unemployment office)? Is it that they didn't have access to the government payroll records, or would those records have been delayed? How would working for the Federal Government during the qualifying period have affected my unemployment benefits?

Thank you in advance for your responses.

 

[pattytx]

Did you list the federal government as one of your employers on your claim? To my knowledge, states don't automatically get information on wages from other states or the federal government; they have to request wage information from them. Did you get a W-2?

 

[commentator]

Ah yes! Federal money claims! (Called X claims in most systems, which I always thought was a bit funny.) You need at once to recontact the unemployment office. Keep trying until you reach someone on the telephone. DO NOT give up. There will be a statement about appealing this monetary determination somehwhere on the paperwork you received. There should be a number to call or a place to send information regarding such an appeal if you wish to make one.

What you need to find out is if your federal wages have been recorded and noted and the office is in the process of requesting these wages, and if at that time, you will be sent an amended monetary determination? It does,even under the best circumstances, take longer for the unemployment system to get veryfication of those federal wages from the federal government. Offer to provide documentation, the W-2 or whatever you got from the federal government showing this exact amount, but it will still take an extra bit of processing.

It is quite possible, particularly if you filed your claim by internet, that no one has noticed your federal wages. It is your responsibility to correct this error now that you have the monetary determination.

If they failed to pick up that you had these federal wages, you must quickly protest this monetary determination and insist that the office go through this process of having them added to your base period wages. If you have been receiving benefits already by the time they get this fixed, they should correct your weekly benefit amount to add these federal wages and backpay you the difference in what you'd have received up to this point.

But you must get back to them, because these wages should be included, but must be added by a slightly different process. All the same, it is your responsibility to make sure they were not omitted in error, and that your monetary determination is correct.

 

[sandyclaus]

Did you list the federal government as one of your employers on your claim? To my knowledge, states don't automatically get information on wages from other states or the federal government; they have to request wage information from them. Did you get a W-2?

Yes, I did list the federal gov't as my employer (listed as the agency, US Census Bureau, not specifically listed as federal gov't). And I did receive a W-2, but did not have it yet when I filed the unemployment claim (I received it at the end of Feb, late, but that's another story entirely).

Silly me, I thought that, as with any other employer, the employer would report the wages to CA EDD. I didn't realize that the state wouldn't have the info on those wages unless they were specifically requested by the employee for whatever reason.

Can anyone verify this for sure? Because I suspect that someone I know is now receiving unemployment benefits since he lost his regular job, and at the same time, he is presently working for the US Census Bureau. Is it possible that the state won't ever find out, unless he voluntarily reports his federal wages? Even I know he could get into BIG trouble for not reporting his current wages while still collecting those state UI benefits.

 

[pattytx]

I can totally verify that other jurisdictions do not automatically send a report of your wages earned there to your resident state. I have had multi-state claims in the past. And yes, it does take extra time; how much extra depends on how backed up the other jurisdiction is.

 

[commentator]

Federal wages are different in that they are not regular state wages from a state tax paying employer. Same thing with military wages and wages from work in other states. They do not just "pop up" automatically in a wage record check for you.As I said, if you file on the internet, sometimes the system doesn't autmatically go out and do what it needs to do to get your federal wages added in to your claim.

But every time you draw, you get that monetary determination, and the responsibility for making sure your unemployment wages in the base period includes all the wages is ultimately up to you. Though they are supposed to go get them, and you still can get them added, you'll need to get in touch with the unemployment system and find out why they weren't added before now. And they'll eventually be added and you'll be back paid for the additional amount of benefits you should have been getting. If you take on the task of making it right, and persist until it is all correct.

If someone is working for the census and drawing, it's possible that a cross check of wage records won't automatically pull them up, but believe me, the feds and the state do work very closely together. A list of all the census workers will at some point be cross matched with the unemployment system. So I'd say their chances of being caught out are fair without your assistance.

But if you think someone is working and still drawing benefits, you should call in to the state unemployment fraud hotline or fraud unit and give them as much information as you have about the suspected fraud. This will cause them to check out the person. They'll look to see if he's still filing claims, if he's reporting the census work, if it looks very suspicious they can contact him or check with the census employer.

They would never tell the person who turned him in, or who he was reported by, but at the same time, they'll never tell you anything about the disposition of this situation, either. They'll thank you for your information, and you'll never hear about it again, even if you call and ask.

Sometimes it's hard to tell. If they work partial weeks, depending on how they are working in relation to the unemployment work week, the person may still be getting some of their unemployment while working, quite legally. Ir they may be on a week and off a week, or they may have stopped filing during this time. They'll be laid off when the census job ends and will be able to draw again, unless they are caught for committing some type of fraud while working.