How to Fight for your Unemployment Benefits
During the process to apply for getting unemployment compensation, you be challenged by your previous company. Reasons that you may not collect benefits will vary, however, there are countermeasures that you can use in defense.
The Employment Development Department (EDD) is required to listen to all counterclaims if they have information that’s evidence-driven. For whatever reason, your ex-employer may hold a grudge against you or is guilty of wrongdoing that you found-out. They may opt to burden you further by claiming your reason for quitting was due to misconduct.
Some companies will try to avoid paying for unlawful termination lawsuits and even their unemployment insurance to cut corners further. Their strategy may include targeting selected employees for harassment and bullying to drive them to quit. This, unfortunately, can happen to many seasonal and short-term workers.
Three months is the shortest period that you can claim unemployment compensation. These employers will not want to pay for their additional unemployment insurance and find sneaky ways to prevent you from collecting on that insurance benefit. If you quit your job voluntarily, this will not allow you to get benefits from the EDD. Especially if there’s no claim on your behalf, such as documented violence or harassment, that led to you suddenly quitting. Yet if you did quit and were being forced to leave there are steps you can follow to reverse the unemployment claim.
What can you do?
Being denied the ability to claim unemployment makes it difficult to cover basic living expenses. This also can prevent you from using these benefits to look for another job effectively. In the event you feel that your ex-employer is blackballing you, you’ll need to follow these tips:
• Get as many witness statements from those who are willing to tell what happened.
• Gather as much evidence or proof of your claims (mobile phone recordings, pictures, etc.)
• Bring all of these items with you to your EDD hearing
• If you do not win the final verdict, you have the right to appeal your case by a specific time
Unemployment benefit extensions
Luckily in the end, if you do win the appeal and are granted unemployment benefits, there’s added benefit extensions. An additional 20 weeks can be added to your claim if they fall into selected categories.
• If you accept work that pays lower than the amount you were being paid previously
• Accepting work tasks that differ from your skill-set with lower expected pay
• Going to all scheduled EDD re-employment service interviews
Disaster Unemployment Assistance
If your work was affected by a natural disaster, you can claim Disaster Unemployment assistance. The affected area needs to be further listed as such, by FEMA and by the US President. For this claim, you are eligible to collect up to 26 weeks from the date your disaster area was declared.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock/michaelheim