by Alli
(Florida)
Hello! I’ve been reading these questions and your responses…..it’s great! I have two questions for you if you can please help.
1) I am employed in Florida as a Substitute Teacher.(Started 2-27-09 and ended 6-3-09) We get paid on an “on call” basis only. Basically, if there are no jobs for you that day you don’t get paid. But my hourly rate is $13.00/hour. Fortunately for me, I’ve been working every day, equivalent to 40 hours a week. Also, we don’t get benefits and summer pay like full time teachers so I will be unemployed for 3 months. The school year starts Aug. 18, 2009. I will be eligible again to work but probably won’t until a week or two after that date (teachers won’t need to call out that early in the school year). Am I allowed to file for unemployment? Will it pay me retro actively for the month I’ve been out of work(today is July 11) or just pay me from the date I file until I start working again?
2) During my unemployment I have been actively searching for a job. To my surprise, I received a response to a government/federal job I applied to. Will filing for unemployment hurt my chances at progressing through the interview/hiring stages??
Thanks so much for your help! Hope I explained everything clearly! lol
Hi Alli,
Anyone is allowed to file .. even when in doubt, but then you have to qualify and you have to qualify first monetarily and then nonmonetarily or based upon the merits of the separation.
For most folks .. the usual problems, but ….
You are a teacher and you have an additional obstacle in your way .. it’s called “reasonable assurance”.
Now, not all school districts follow through with the necessary documentation to sustain denial on these grounds, but it’s definitely a consideration you need to be aware of and not all states decide the issue the same.
I also think you need to check the resource on this page .. just to make sure you are monetarily qualified. If you had employment previous to 2-27 there probably would not be a problem, but if this is the only employment, you will not have enough wages in your base period. Florida, like most states, looks at the wages earned in the first 4 of the last 5 COMPLETED QUARTERS. Currently, anyone filing from July 1 – September 30 will have a base period of 4-1-08 through 3-31-09.
The employment you told me about isn’t going to be there.
Benefits are not paid retroactively. They pay from the date the claim is filed going forward .. minus the first unpaid waiting week .. if the state has a waiting week (most do).
No, filing for unemployment won’t interfere with job interviews and different stages of the hiring process. In fact, filing for unemployment usually requires you to become a full-time job seeker:)
I’ve got to tell you .. the “reasonable assurance” issue is hard for me to figure out .. I could never find any consistency in initial determinations or hearing decisions. It just depends on the state and the precedents they’ve set.
I think I need a teacher to explain it to me:)
I did a search for – reasonable assurance+ teachers .. I think I’ll do a little reading:)
Chris
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