Fighting for Unemployment Benefits: Part 1

As most people know, if you have gotten fired, you are unable to apply and receive unemployment pay, which is only collectable if you have gotten laid off from the job. However, were you aware that even if you have gotten laid off, your former employer can challenge and try to stop you from receiving those benefits?

At first thought it is infuriating to think that any employer would want to not only let you go, but then to make sure you are cut-off and hindered from the measly income you could receive to keep you afloat until you find another job. Especially since most believe that those unemployment benefits are coming from the government and not the employer anyway, so why should they care?

Well, the truth of it is, the money is only partially coming from the government. In fact, unemployment benefits are more like an insurance policy that your employer has to pay into. They pay towards it every month like any other insurance or tax type system. When they lay someone off, and that person files an unemployment claim, like most insurance policies, the rate of the policy goes up for the employer. Of course that increase in the rate is still way below the amount that your salary was, but still, some companies will try to keep it from changing at all. So if they can stop you from receiving the benefits, it will keep their payments low, saving them a little more money.

Unfortunately, in order to challenge your ability to receive this, it would require the employer to claim that instead of being laid off, you were fired for some performance-based reason, which would make you ineligible for unemployment. Again, it seems sad that an employer would try to do this to someone, especially if it is not true, and you were let go for non-performance issues. Hopefully companies will feel bad about having to cut back to begin with, and lose such valued employees, and would never consider this. But the whole left-hand knowing what the right-hand is doing comes into play. Those in charge of the employees may feel horrible about having to cut people, but are being told to do so by those who are more in touch with the financial side of business. Then, it may be those financial people, who most likely do not know you, who then try to save a few bucks by challenging the benefits.

So, while the bad news is that the amount of employer challenges has been on the rise, the actual success rate of those challenges has remained pretty much the same for decades.

In the next part I will share some tips for what can be done to help protect you if your benefits are challenged. If you wish to share your story relating to this type of issue, please comment below.

Jeff McCormack resides in Virginia Beach, VA. where he works as a web designer by day. In his off time he is a husband, father, mail order book store manager, and musician. Aside from being a freelance writer for this Utilities Jobsite blog, he also seeks to assist in career choices and information by contributing to other Nexxt blog sites.