Unemployment is one of those topics that tends to bring up a lot of emotions for many people. It seems like every few days, there is a story in the news about the current unemployment rate, the ratio of available jobs to the number of job seekers, or the quality of the jobs that still exist. If you, or a loved one, has lost his or her job, then you understand how stressful it can be to try and continue paying your bills with no income. This is where unemployment insurance might be helpful.
What is unemployment insurance? It is a federal program that enables eligible unemployed American citizens to receive financial benefits for a specific period of time. Where does this money come from? It comes from the person’s previous employers, from government contributions, and also from the money that was taken out of a person’s paycheck by the government specifically so those funds would be available to the person in case he or she becomes unemployed.
Who is eligible for unemployment insurance? You must be an American citizen. You must have lost your job due to no fault of your own. This means you cannot decide to quit your job, in favor of collecting unemployment insurance. If you were fired for misconduct, you cannot receive unemployment insurance either. If you become self employed, you may be ineligible for unemployment insurance benefits.
If you lose your job, you must sign up for unemployment insurance. Unemployment Insurance is the only insurance that you are supposed to sign up for after something bad happens, (in this case, you lose your job). All other forms of insurance are something you should obtain a policy for before something bad happens. It’s a little bit backwards.
In general, you will need to start searching on the internet for the Employment Development Department for your state (which might be going by a different name). Use the website to sign up. You should expect to wait anywhere between two weeks, and a month and a half for the system to catch up to you. When it does, you should be getting benefit checks every other week, for a total of 26 weeks. (Some states will allow people to receive unemployment insurance benefits for a longer span of time). You will be expected to pay taxes on the money you receive from unemployment insurance.
Expect to receive a call from the government organization that sends you unemployment insurance benefits. There will be a representative on the line who will ask you lots of questions about what happened that caused you to lose your job. You are very likely to receive this call before you even see your first benefit check, because this is one of the ways that the government uses to determine if you are eligible for unemployment insurance in the first place. It is entirely possible that you will be expected to submit to more than one phone call like this. If you get a part time job, expect that your unemployment benefit checks will be reduced. When your award runs out, you will need to essentially start all over, and sign up for an extension.
Image by martin Abegglen on Flickr