Can I file for unemployment after being on FMLA for pregnancy and then having to resign?

by Karin

(Loveland, Colorado)

I WAS an over the road truck driver & I have been unemployed since 12/28/11. I went on FMLA for pregnancy and came home to have my son. Since leave was over in March of 2012 I had to resign from my job as a truck driver. I could not go back over the road. I had a son to raise now & truck driving takes me away from home from 3-6 weeks at a time. I have been unable to find work since then. Can I be eligible to collect unemployment since I had a lifestyle change (childbirth) and am having a hard time finding work? I have lost everything already & had to move from Missouri to Colorado into my sisters home because of this. The last bit of info I had was that I couldn’t collect unemployment because of a birth.

Hi Karin,

There’s a couple problems I can foresee if you file a claim for benefits, and I don’t see a legitimate argument to overcome either.

First, your reason for resigning because your lifestyle has now been changed by the birth of your child is all be related back to personal choice you made.

Good choices too, but not for collecting benefits because the quit has to fit in with the Colorado statutes that say a quit must be attributable to the employment and that you made efforts to preserve the employment.

Understandably being an OTR truck driver might be an insurmountable obstacle to the same decision many new moms make to their lifestyle it’s also, not something you can shift the responsibility of the reason the job ended to show the employer at fault.

Additionally, you’ve been unemployed since the first quarter of 2012 and with each passing quarter you are losing quarters with earned wages in them which is relevant to qualifying monetarily.

Have you looked for local driving jobs through Connecting Colorado, or checked into TANF for support and job training grants?