What happens after initial claim balance runs out?

by Judie

(California Unemployment Benefits)

What happens after initial claim balance runs out?

I live in a resort area in California. Laid off from a part time job after 8 years effective the last week of 2008 and have been collecting $285 plus $25 stimulus since then. Currently required to find maximum of 30 hours/week in my field (payroll/financial/administrative). Job market is zilch. Form says claim expires 12-26-09 but claim balance is $1710. which is only six more weeks (less if stimulus included). What happens when that $1710 runs out? Will they notify me, or do I have to call the phone number that is never, never, never available? Are there extended benefits, how do I get them, and will requirements be different? Can they require me to take full time to stay qualified?

Hi Judie,

That’s a whole lot of questions. You really know how to get value out of asking a question for free:)

That’s right .. the money runs out before the benefit year ends. The duration of unemployment benefits vary, but for most of us who worked consistently .. day in, day out, for our entire adult lives .. it’s 26 weeks and you can’t file a claim for regular benefits for a 2nd benefit year until the benefit year ends. There will be additional qualifying requirements and the worst part .. a new base period which will include part of your time spent being unemployed.

My guess is the money remaining does not include the stimulus. The stimulus is something additional they add for everyone and is paid for by the feds .. not the state.

What to do when your unemployment runs out? Visit this page at the EDD. You should receive the same amount. It says the “department will automatically file for the extension .. okey dokey.

I have holes in what I know about unemployment and when someone asks a question about extensions .. I feel inadequate to answer affirmatively or even negatively.

I do not “think” that receiving the extension can override California’s provisions about part-time workers, but the statutes cover extended benefits in part 3 of the table of contents. There is a link to the statutes on the page with the unemployment rules. You may find the answer there.

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May 25, 2011
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My unemployment ran out. What do I do now?

by: Anonymous

I was laid off in January 2009 from a mortgage company in California. I have since been collecting unemployment benefits and just exhausted my 99 weeks. I had to relocate back to Ohio in September of 2009 because i could not find work or keep my rent paid. I have been applying for jobs since 2009 and had a few interviews and it always is the same i am too overqualified. Now that my benifits have exhausted what do i do now?

Hi,

It’s not like I’ve never been asked this before, but the question has nothing to do with collecting unemployment benefits.

Frankly, you were lucky to have received the maximum weeks that anyone has been able to collect on one claim and that is 73 weeks longer than what is typical for unemployment benefits.

The only difference during this recession is the length of the seemingly, never ending recession.

But of course, you know about that .. or you’d be happily back to work in the mortgage biz.

So, it should also not come as a surprise, given that I stress the importance of preparing to get benefits, that I also take this attitude about “what do I do now”.

There were a lot of factors based upon my personal feelings about traditional employment that went into the creation of this website, but the primary thing on my mind was that without a job working for some employer that will never consider the needs of my life first .. is that I will always be responsible for my financial well being.

Whether that means holding a job that is subject to the rules and the bottom line whims of someone else .. namely an employer or the choice I made.

I decided to take that bull by the horns and eke out my own little space that now allows me to finally say once again .. I earn my living.

But I rarely discuss this subject here in the unemployment benefit Q&A’s.

This is about surviving unemployment and taking action to prepare for the future.

Because I was no better off than 33 million other Americans when I lost my job .. except that I knew unemployment benefits were only a short-term temporary fix.

So, I did something.

I learned something new so I could make money that might eventually allow me to not just be somebody’s employee, but the responsible party that created a job for herself.

By the way, I became unemployed for the last time in Feb. of 2009 .. after an almost 3 year stint as a temp employee working for the same outfit that laid me off in 2006.

What do you think I was doing at night after putting in 70 hours a week as a coordinator with no health bennies or pto?

Just waiting until my employer no longer needed my services again or opting to make my current or any future employer irrelevant to my future?