I am getting $655 a week in unemployment benefits!

[mentos]

My coworker’s wife (who works from home, self employed, about 10-15hrs a week) is literally making 2x her usual pay under PUA. She draws $750/week in California when she was making about $1500 a month as a copy editor.

Her boss knows this and has not sent any work her way and won’t until after July 25. Plus, work has ground to a halt anyway.

 

[kandb]

We know a young college girl here in NJ who was working in a daycare for very limited hours making $120/wk. After she got laid off because of the pandemic, she is bringing home over $700/wk in unemployment! Sorry, this is ludicrous!

 

[Elle23]

One step closer to universal basic income. Let’s get people used to making money for doing nothing.

 

[TDSAXX]

I finally got my unemployment going. I have never recieved this much of it in my life. I qualified for only like $55 a week with the normal unemployment but I am getting $655 a week. Now I will stay I will put back at least 1/3 of for tax purposes, but still that is me netting around $400 a week. I never thought me substituting in the school system maybe one or two days a week would pay off like this.

I assume you won’t try to collect in June, July and August since school would typically be out for Summer Break and you aren’t really unemployed for those months,

 

[wendow]

My daughter is a junior in college and lost her coffee shop job due to the shut down. She initially qualified for $150/wk in benefits which was enough to pay her rent but not anything else. She applied to a local grocery that was hiring and now she is feeling bad because she would have made more with these extra unemployment benefits...i told her honest work is never a mistake

My dd was laid off March 15. She filed for UE in the state she was working in and they decided she was 'ineligible' just 2 weeks ago (for not making $2500 though she should have been for the fed money) so she filed in our home state, where she made way more than $2500 last year and she is still pending. She is trying to get a job but here in CO, so few places are open. She has bills to pay and a rapidly dwindling bank account. The UE here has been so frustrating.

 

[Kauai4life]

The extra $600.00 a week just makes no sense at all, if anything it should be going to the people that have to work, especially the ones that have to wear a mask all day. Why would you pay someone more then they usually make to stay home.

 

[tvguy]

I'm not laid off but there's not enough work for 12 techs per day. We were "picking names from a hat" in the beginning because no one wanted to be forced to be off. Is that the same as furlough? We had a choice to take it either no pay or use ETO (sick/vac in one bank). Our ETO bank keeps accruing. I had about 1.5 weeks in the bank remaining for a cruise in late March which of course was cancelled. Some coworkers had summer & fall trips they were still hopeful they could take so they didn't want to wipe out their banked time off. I was expecting to use up my time off for the cruise anyway so once I read an email that the hospital said it's ok to anyone with reduced hours to apply for unemployment, I figured I might as well stay out so those who really are desperate for hours can have them. Some coworkers had their husbands laid off completely. One coworker lost her husband to COVID. So sad. Comparatively, we're in good shape and still putting $ into savings.

My benefits package deduction from my pay (health/dental/disability, etc.) was ok up until this week because I worked a few hours here and there or was paid ETO in April. This week is the first biweekly pay that is truly $0 so they will deduct double from my next check. Oh well, still it could be much worse. At least we're all healthy.

Yes that would be a furlough. HOWEVER by doing it a day here and there you don't qualify for unemployment benefits. That is why our corporate owners are making us take 5 consecutive days in the same pay week, so we CAN get unemployment through our state and the $600 from the CARE act. When the coronavirus hit, California started waiving the one week waiting period for unemployment benefits. ' We had furloughs back during the 2009-10 recession, but in that case we had to take one day off every other week until we had taken 5 days. But under the old unemployment rules, even 5 consecutive days would not have qualified for unemployment benefits.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

It doesn’t work out for everyone. I’m in NJ and I know plenty of people who were furloughed who are making much less On unemployment even with the extra $600. One works in the entertainment industry and they told him he may not be back to work until the third quarter of 2021. He’s looking into changing careers right now. I have other friends in the hotel industry who are dealing with the same thing. Luckily they are all dual income households so it’s helping for the time being but they can’t keep this up forever without depleting savings or risk losing a lot, if not everything.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

A better way would’ve been to pay everyone what they normally would’ve made.

 

[HeatherC]

The way this is all set up is certainly not fair. Life is unfair. I do think, however, that we have never seen anything like this before and in this instance I’m ok with people getting money. Maybe it will go back into the economy and maybe in many cases it will help prevent more people relying on public assistance on a long term basis or winding up homeless and or unable to buy food for their families.

They also needed a way to get it to as many people as quickly as possible. That by itself, did not allow them to investigate who should get what. This kind of called for a broad brush stroke to get the money out there.

As just a part of this unprecedented aid package, this is probably a drop in the bucket of all those trillions. At least this money we can see getting to people, unlike all the“pork” they managed to include in those trillions. At least the $600 is tangible. A lot of those other line items most will never benefit from, yet we will still have to pay in them.

 

[punkin]

My daughter is a junior in college and lost her coffee shop job due to the shut down. She initially qualified for $150/wk in benefits which was enough to pay her rent but not anything else. She applied to a local grocery that was hiring and now she is feeling bad because she would have made more with these extra unemployment benefits...i told her honest work is never a mistake

This is interesting. My DD lost her college job as well, but I never thought to have her apply for unemployment...

 

[mentos]

This is interesting. My DD lost her college job as well, but I never thought to have her apply for unemployment...

it’s not too late, most states will retroactively pay benefits

 

[punkin]

it’s not too late, most states will retroactively pay benefits

I will have her apply but I just didn't realize that loss of a part time job qualified.

 

[focusondisney]

quite literally broken though, the reason for the non-means-tested $600 is because state UI systems are so ancient (think COBOL), pegging the extra stimulus to actual income would have taken ages. Not to mention that self-employed income is more difficult to quantify.

there’s tons of articles in WSJ about how businesses are having trouble luring back their workers for less money than they would make sitting at home safe from exposure. Weird world.

ill call this a once-in-a-generation quirk. Once states upgrade their UI systems, flat payments like these won’t be necessary again.

So much this! NY state’s unemployment/ labor dept systems were supposed to be being upgraded years ago & it hasn’t happened. The backlogs to receive payments have been ridiculous. Especially people like independent contractors or gig employees who have specific proofs needed. There are people in NYS who filed in March still waiting to get approved. Trying to get specific with the emergency amounts would have put even more strain on state systems.

I don’t think this is precedent setting or just another give away. It was intended as an emergency relief in a never before seen situation. Now if it gets extended, I would expect changes to be made. Because I agree, no one should routinely be making more on unemployment than while working. If we’re giving Fortune 500 companies assistance, I’m ok giving average Americans a little emergency help too.

 

[siren0119]

The extra $600.00 a week just makes no sense at all, if anything it should be going to the people that have to work, especially the ones that have to wear a mask all day. Why would you pay someone more then they usually make to stay home.

Sure. Why would you incentivize people to stay home that would otherwise have to go to work? It's almost as though our lower wage workers were put in a position before the pandemic of having to work whether they were sick or not, never taking time off, because their jobs didn't pay them enough in the first place and they were barely surviving before the pandemic.

 

[Darcy03231]

Do all states not have the same requirements? In California if your jobs ask you back you can’t say no or you risk the chance of getting your unemployment cut. You have to be ready to work if you have been furlough. I know that the governor didn’t make it to where you need to look for a job currently, but prior you had to be searching for a job.

Our Governor was on the news last night addressing this. If you get called back to work you're not eligible for unemployment benefits unless there are some severe extenuating circumstances. Those will be decided on a case by case basis and until you can get a hearing (which they're not doing right now because of the pandemic) you won't get any benefits. If you prevail the benefits will be retroactive.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

This, with the proposed mortgage payment assistance program (similar to TARP for those in HHF states), will potentially cause worse economic challenges within our country for years to come than the benefit they provide in the short term. Kudos to states now allowing employers to report employees that are refusing to return to work now that their businesses are opening back up, thus so they can keep on unemployment. Those getting more on unemployment than the normal salary that will also be eligible for mortgage assistance programs (should it be passed), will cause an unnecessary burden on taxpayers. Whereas I do support the purpose of this unemployment and I don’t think the $600 extra was a bad thing, it never should have been structured to provide more than what one normally makes.

And I am on my soapbox because the OP says, they never thought “the system” would pay off like this. The system shouldn’t be expected to be a payoff.

Many people are “refusing” to go back to work because they now have zero childcare. Not because they don’t want to or because they’re killing it with their extra $600 a week.

So now they have no job. No unemployment. And kids home all day that need to eat.

it’s all messed up.

 

[Carrie Ellis]

Both of my kids have finally started recieving unemployment. Their first deposit was Tuesday this week. The claim goes back to when they lost their job first of March. Will they get UE for those weeks too? Will come in later or separately?

 

[mentos]

Both of my kids have finally started recieving unemployment. Their first deposit was Tuesday this week. The claim goes back to when they lost their job first of March. Will they get UE for those weeks too? Will come in later or separately?

there’s 50 separate UI/UE systems in the United States, so there are 50 different answers, haha.

but generally speaking, benefits are retroactively paid given that it has historically taken 4-8 weeks to process.

 

[stephk1981]

I finally got my unemployment going. I have never recieved this much of it in my life. I qualified for only like $55 a week with the normal unemployment but I am getting $655 a week. Now I will stay I will put back at least 1/3 of for tax purposes, but still that is me netting around $400 a week. I never thought me substituting in the school system maybe one or two days a week would pay off like this.

Glad it is helping your family, save it for when the schools open back up....they may need subs less often, you never know. If not, the saved money will make a nice..... shall I say Disney trip