Unemployment Qualification Questions

[pixelrogue1]

STATE: PA

Hello everyone, few novice UC questions and hope something here might have insight. Let me know if there is a more appropriate location for this type of question.

1099 Contractor
This is my first time as an independent 1099 contractor (who is insured and has been required to pay into UC benefits as part of estimated quarterly tax payments.) Contract has since ended. Am I eligible?

W2 Contractor
Secondly, I was contracting for two companies in the recent past (2017 & 2018) - where I was a W2 employee of those companies. I didn't think to apply for UC Benefits at the time. As a backup, my thinking is that I had built up enough 'working hour credits' from those contracts to qualify if my own 1099 didn't work. Did too much time pass?

 

[cbg]

The best way to get an answer to your questions is to apply for unemployment. There is no penalty for being wrong and it costs nothing but a little time. The worst that can happen is that you're denied and if that's the case, you're no worse off than if you never applied in the first place.

 

[pixelrogue1]

Yes...yes. Good point.
Good news is that my last W2 actually was in 2018 (a few months worth into the year).

Went to fill it out online, and am presented with a question I'm not sure how to answer.
An entire screen dedicated to "Employer You Separated From" -
Do I use the W2 (which as the beginning of the year), or 1099 which would be recent (and my own company)?

 

[pixelrogue1]

ALSO, reason for leaving. Both instances, the contract dates were met, yet UC Claims form does not include that as an option.
- Fired
- Suspended
- Laid Off
- Lack of Work
- Quit
- Leave of Absence
- Labor Dispute
- Closed
- Still Employed
- Retired

 

[Zigner]

Seems to me that "laid off" or "lack of work" would apply.
You don't file for UI when you are an independent contractor...assuming you really were an IC

 

[pixelrogue1]

Seems to me that "laid off" or "lack of work" would apply.
You don't file for UI when you are an independent contractor...assuming you really were an IC

Right. So I was also a W2 employee prior to the most recent 1099 contract.
So do not enter anything about the consulting contract that recently ended, and just file a claim the earlier W2 work?

Also curious, when 'the company' (my consulting company) was paying into UC with prepaid tax payments, why that would have been required if 'employees' can not utilize when work runs out?

 

[commentator]

If you have not been a W2 employee in the last 2 years, you will not likely be monetarily eligible for unemployment benefits. The system reaches back into the first four of the last five completed quarters, with some limited exceptions, and if you don't have covered wages in those quarters, they don't set up the claim. I will never say 100% that someone is or is not going to qualify. I'm not working for the PA unemployment system.

All those questions about last date worked, reason for leaving, etc. are totally tough to answer, regarding your last job, because if you were really a contractor, not a misclassified employee, you can't usually lay yourself off.

I strongly suggest that you are not on the correct forum to ask these questions because you are not asking them of the unemployment system in your state. There's no special trick, or mistake you could make in filing the claim that would make it necessary to come on line and find someone to answer your questions ahead of time. You are also at risk of running into people who likely can't tell much of anything about your particular situation with unemployment insurance. And your chances of being misinformed or reaching the wrong conclusions are great. In general people who are private contractors are not eligible for unemployment insurance when their contracted employment ends. But as to why you were being required to pay it in, as you say, if that was what happening, can't tell you. The PA system should have somewhere you can try to get an answer to this, let you talk to a living human being who is working in their system.

If you don't know what to put down, just put in your name, contact information and social security number and submit your claim quickly and let them follow up with you to ask for completed answers to the questions. They'll be much more helpful than all this guesswork about the "right" answers.

 

[pixelrogue1]

W2 for 2018 and 2017.

What forum would be more appropriate?

 

[Chyvan]

There is no "appropriate" forum. Just apply. More often than not, when you "join the ranks of the self employed," you have zero protections from the UI system unless you want to scream, "I was misclassified." I'm not seeing anything to make me think you were misclassified. Therefore, your wages from 2017 and 2018 don't mean anything because your self employment has made you ineligible.

In the big scheme of things, you can work at a grocery story for 20 years that goes under in May. You immediately start a landscaping business that's doing great because it's summer time, and then business drops off in fall. You can't usually get UI anymore. UI doesn't protect a business OWNER from a slow down in business, just his employees.