by shannon
(augusta, Georgia)
I did file in November of 2007 and received benefits for 3 weeks. Then I started receiving Workman’s Comp so I stopped with UI. Now I no longer get WC and cannot find employment. Can I re-certify for UI?
Hi Shannon,
Your problem isn’t one of how long you have to file after being fired because you did. That claim you filed for UC benefits was active for one year.
You should have tried to establish a second benefit year in November of 2008.
The establishment of a benefit year locks in the base period which determines your weekly benefit amount on the wages you received during the base period.
Georgia’s base period is the first four of the last five completed quarters .. or they also have an alternative base period which is the last 4 completed quarter if the standard BP doesn’t have the qualifying wages necessary for benefits.
Qualifying wages generally have to exist in at least two different quarters. The minimum amount of wages needed must be in one quarter and then most states require a percentage of that high quarter wages in another quarter.
All this confusing information can be found in the resource linked to on this page.
Workman Comp Insurance is also a wage replacement program that employer’s are required to cover you with .. as well as unemployment insurance and are not considered as base period wages .. at least in most of the states that I have checked this issue for an answer.
But for GA, I couldn’t find a definitive answer and as we should all know .. the differences between how states may operate can be as great as the difference between countries.
I think you should ask an attorney.
Maybe something along the lines of .. Does Georgia have a provision that would make it possible to qualify for unemployment after Workman Comp payments end .. if you have not already asked.
Although attorneys most often consider unemployment questions a non-paying annoyance .. Worker Comp Insurance question are quite a different subject .. they present more potential for lawsuits.