by Concerned Citizen
(New Jersey)
Hello,
My husband has been chronically unemployed since December 2008 when DHL terminated 90% of their US Workforce. He worked there for 14 years!
During his time unemployed, he attended the ‘One-Stop-Career-Center to be re-trained in the medical field to try and gain employment that way. He graduated this past September 2010 and has sent close to 100 resumes to each and every Hospital/Surgery Center on practically the entire East Coast. Backed with multiple phone calls and emails to potential employers, he hasn’t even so much as gotten a face to face interview, let alone a letter stating that they have reviewed his resume and have offered the job to another.
With that said, my question for you would be, would you have any information on Unemployment Benefits while attending school, differing from those who have collected their 99 weeks and have none now. I mean, when he attended school, this Career Center assured him that this type of Unemployment benefit while attending school is NOT the same as ‘regular’ Unemployment Benefits. So that the resources for Unemployment Benefits while attending school are drawn from a different kitty, in the event he could not find employment in a reasonable amount of time after graduation, he would still have the ‘regular’ Unemployment Benefits to draw from.
Have you ever heard of this, as the representative from the One-Stop-Career-Center has told my husband that they are inundated with phone calls every day asking the same question, however, ‘they’ do not know the answer???
P.S.~We have made several phone calls and written letters to NJ Department of Labor and they keep referring us back to the One-Stop-Career-Center for answers to our questions. They tell my husband, “You have collected your 99weeks, you are finished!!
Thank you in advance for your response~
Hi Concerned,
Here’s what I know about the different kitty pools or unemployment funds.
Most states have what is called a “general fund” in addition all employer’s have individual SUTA’s (State unemployment tax accounts).
Contributing employer’s consistently pay taxes into their SUTA and a portion of tax from all employers is dropped into the “general fund”.
The benefits that come out of general funds are generally for when a claimant can collect unemployment, but the state also has a provision which allows for non-charging of the employer’s SUTA.
Whether the benefits your husband was collecting while going to shcool were “different” than what I described above .. I don’t know, but I can tell you why he can’t collect any “regualr” benefits now after 99 weeks.
He no longer has any wages in a base period (BP) which is always attached to a benefit year (BY), but a “standard BP is a separate span of time than the BY.
The BP is used to monetarily qualify an individual for benefits and depending upon the formula used by a state determines the weekly benefit amount (WBA).
So, at present, for your husband to be able to collect those “regular unemployment benefits” I can assume that he has earned nothing coming close to qualifying wages as far back as a BP would reach if he were filing now .. 18 months or 78 weeks is the maximum any BP can reach back for qualifying wages unless the person happens to live in a state that offers an “extended BP” and use of that one to qualify an individual is used generally, when they have been not able and available for work due to injuries and health reasons for an extended period of time that caused the qualifying wages to be removed with the passage of time from the standard base period.
I’m just not sure why they were leading people to believe that those benefits received while going to school were something different than their unemployment benefits based on their former employment .. they weren’t .. if they were just coming from a different fund, there is nothing I know personally, that alters the ability to establish a valid claim .. It’s always wages .. in a BP that is looked at before they even move on to the merits of whether you are entitled to receive the benefits.
I feel bad .. I’d much rather be able to give a positive response .. but please, if anyone knows that I’m wrong about this .. tell me why I’m wrong. It would make me almost as happy as it would Concerned.
Chris