by Richard
(Virginia Unemployment Benefits)
I fear that I will be forced to take retirement. I am 65 but receive only a small pension from an employer of 30 years ago and have not signed up for social security. So, would I be eligible for unemployment in Virginia if I wish to seek further employment even though I was forced to retire from my present company. My company only provides a 401K and no other retirement.
Hi Richard,
Compulsory retirements are treated like a voluntary quit, however if you take a look at the common areas DOLETA mentions in Table 5-2, good cause for quitting may be provided for provisionally or simply with a law being interpreted by a state to allow for good cause .. or it’s just left blank .. which wouldn’t be a good sign.
This is a separate issue from the deductions applied to unemployment benefits due to payments received from a retirement account, found in table 5-16 which is worth a look/see as well about any impact of retirement payments from both a base period and a non-base period employer.
So, we can see in table 5-2 linked to above, that VA interprets their UI law in the case of a VQ due to compulsory retirement.
To be safe, you should find how Virginia interpreted a forced retirement type of quit.
I would suggest starting with issues such as “able and available” and “voluntary quit”.
However, if the issue of a forced retirement is interpreted favorably for the employee .. it becomes like a discharge .. for reasons other than misconduct.
Therefore, it also doesn’t exclude you from being able and available for work which is just a conditional requirement to collect .. but something you have to look out for .. bad assumptions by a state UI dept.