05-11-2021, 05:16 PM
(05-11-2021, 04:44 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Because you have to be seeking work to be eligible for unemployment benefits.
Also if you are offered to return to work and refuse you can not collect unemployment benefits.
Unless something has changed in the last 10 years then I'm going to have to point out that these requirements (seeking work and not refusing a job opportunity) are extremely easy to work around.
Fwiw, this is my own story regarding unemployment...
In 2009 my company was getting ready to be sold. As a result they started cutting tons of positions. (My guess is to look better on paper). They laid off nearly 50% of our sales staff and a ton of other positions. Unfortunately for me, I was one of these people.
When this occured it was when they had extended unemployment benefits (similar to now). It was during the housing crisis and recession. If I recall correctly, they were extended from 6 months to 18 months. Obama's administration also passed something that got you a seperate check for around $75 dollars in addition to your unemployment.
Anyways, I drew unemployment for about 8 months and got pretty familair with the process as a result. I also kept in contract with a number of people from the office who were also drawing unemployment. I also spoke with a number of others at the unemployment office while waiting.
Yes, we did have to "look for work". What that actually entailed was going into the unemployment office every month or two and listing out the jobs you applied to. Here's the thing though: People would straight up just make up places they applied to and fill out the sheet with cooperate numbers or other bs. I'm pretty sure no one from the state actually followed up and checked any of this.
I knew people I used to work with that told me they weren't even bothering looking for work. They would just put down shit like Best Buy, Larosas, Cintas and keep coming up with new companies each vist. These were mainly the warehouse people who didn't make much to begin with. Almost all of them stayed on unemployment for the full 18 months or close to it. (I couldn't really blame them).
I kinda went through this as well, although I wasn't downright lying about looking for work. But I wasn't going to take a shitty job either. I was making the maximum on unemployment so anything under, I think, $15 bucks an hire would have been a loss for me.
What's funny is my own company called about 90 days after being let go about coming back. I was elated. Come to find out they were bringing back reps at minimum wage with straight commission instead of our old base salaries (40k). To add insult to injury, all of the old accounts we built up were moved over to other reps or were non-commissioned. So we'd basically have to start from scratch.
I turned that job down, among quite a few others. As did a lot of the other guys in my department. At no point did I stop collecting unemployment despite "refusing to work".
tldr: You can easily lie about looking for work, and you can turn down offers. The state unemployment office has nowhere near the resources to make sure people are living up to this, despite it being a requirement. People would straight up tell me they weren't even bothering to look for work and would lie on everything they filled out.
