by pablo
(florida)
hi,
i have a cousin that wants to know (she is 400lbs) if she has been experiencing difficulty in her job, she gets it done, but she has swollen legs, high blood pressure, and signs that she can be headed for a stroke because of her health issues. she wants to quit her job to attend to her health but she doesn’t want to quit because she doesn’t know if she will be eligible for unemployment because she really needs to work to maintain her son now that she is a single parent. if she quits is she eligible for unemployment due to her health.
Hi Pablo,
Unfortunately, no she wouldn’t be eligible for unemployment under the conditions you are relating. The reason they would deny her benefits is because she is not “able and available for work”.
Florida does have a provision that allows unemployment for a worker’s illness, but generally the worker first needs to seek accommodation from the employer to be able to continue in the employment or have medical documentation from a physician advising them to find another job because their is something about the job that makes it impossible for the employer to change or accommodate the worker. Even if a state doesn’t have a specific provision about a worker’s illness being “good cause” for quitting if it is determined the quit is attributable to the work .. a claimant may be able to collect unemployment, but only after they can prove they first tried to “preserve the employment”.
There are only five states that have some type of “temporary disability unemployment insurance that pays benefits for someone that is not “able and available for work” and Florida is not one of them.