unemployment question

[taddles]

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

i apologize on posting here if this is the wrong place, please advise to where it. Anyway, i have been collecting UE for 2 months now. i know there has been extension after extension previously. i have yet to get ONE single interview and only one call back from all the resumes i have sent and jobs i have applied for through the unemployment career site. I am a medical biller andi know it will be difficult to find a job in this field and am perfcetly happy going out of my field, so it is not lack of motivation that i fear will hold me back from obtaining work.

my question it, i have read on the PA site they are starting in june they will phase out the emergency unemployment and what not. does anyone have a clear understanding of exactly that means? my 26 weeks ends the last week of august. since the phase out is starting very soon, will there be no extensions for those of us who were laid off this late in the game? i know we are up to tier 4....will they eliminate them slowing allowing us to still have income or eliminate all teirs at once??

any advice welcome

 

[swalsh411]

If it's like it was the last time, the phase out means you cannot move to the next tier of benefits after the phase out but you can continue on your current tier until it expires.

 

[taddles]

so do they start phasing out tier 4 first allowing me to move to the first tier of emergency UE? i cannot get a straight answer when i call, they act like all you want to do is stay on unemployment, it is costing me money to be on it since i have the cobra to contend with too, so it is not a walk in the park to be on it

 

[taddles]

so basically....

if the phase out starts june 2010 come september 1st, i am dead in the water and will only be entitled to my 26 weeks? am i underdtanding this correctly?

 

[swalsh411]

Yes. My understanding is that you will not be able to move to the next tier of benefits if your current tier expires after the phase-out date. (unless they pass another extension)

 

[commentator]

Twenty six weeks of regular unemployment benefits is all anyone used to get. That is all you can really count on. The extensions were put into effect related to the unemployment rate, they come from the federal government, and there is NO simple way in the world you can know for sure if there will be one in effect in September when you run out of unemployment benefits. NO WAY.

Don't waste your time calling your state office, because they don't have any idea, either. Look what happened to the last time it was extended, how they held the whole program up in congress for weeks. There was no way of knowing whether it would ever get out, pass forth. And then each state has to make decisions about how to administer the extensions, if they do get past congress. They don't make these decisions till they know for sure if they will need to.

September is a long way away. If I were you, I'd be taking part time jobs, I'd be looking for things outside my field. Don't forget, if you work part time and make less than you could draw in unemployment weekly, you can draw partial unemployment, which means you still file, get part of your benefits, and also the wages you make on your part time job. This will help to extend your regular benefits a little longer.

If you want an educated guess, I'd say you might still be in line for the first tier in September, but it remains to be seen. The best way to plan is to assume that you won't get anything from Unemployment beyond September. Search for work and save as though this were the case. It seems like a good guess that they will start the "phasing out" with the highest Tier, so those who have been drawing extensions for the longest time do not have a new one to go to. But that's my opinion. How fast they phase them out, and when they will get around to phasing out Tier I is sort of dependent upon how much federal money for extensions the state of PA has left. And no one who is not in the upper levels of management in the state program can give you any idea or assurances.

It is not the job of the unemployment system to pay you as long as you need it, and if you become destitute because the federal extension is phasing out, it won't be their fault either. So plan for the worst, and if it does work out that you get an extension or even two, that's a nice surprise.