When stints on payroll hurt the jobless

Boston Globe ^ | February 17, 2010 | Robert Gavin

[reaganaut1]

After nearly a year without work, Gary LaPlante was happy to take a three-week construction job. What he didn’t know was that the job would cost him more than two-thirds of his benefits when he went back on unemployment.

LaPlante, a union carpenter, is among thousands of unemployed in Massachusetts and across the nation who are discovering an unexpected kink in the system that can mean drastic cuts in their unemployment benefits.

Workers who seek to renew their benefits for a second year - not uncommon during this recession - are finding that their new benefits are based on their most recent wages, even if it was low pay for temporary or part-time work.

LaPlante’s benefits, for example, were slashed to $178 a week from more than $600. He was forced to move in with a friend, who supported him for several months before he found a full-time job a few weeks ago.

“You can’t take care of yourself with that amount of money,’’ said LaPlante, 42, a member of Carpenters Local 40 in Cambridge. “I don’t think people should be penalized for working.’’

Workers who do not work during their first year of unemployment do not risk changes in their benefits when they refile for a second year.

The danger of cuts when refiling claims for a new year applies even though Massachusetts allows people to work part time and earn up to one-third of their weekly benefit without reducing their unemployment checks.

The state has no firm estimates on how many workers have been affected by the glitch, but thousands of claimants work temporary or part-time jobs while they are receiving jobless benefits. In the week ending Feb. 6, about 15,000 unemployment recipients reported part-time earnings, according to the state Division of Unemployment Assistance.

[Vigilanteman]

You are better off pretending to be an illegal alien and working for cash under the table. Or starting a one-man subcontracting company and applying for a tax ID number to give in these cases.

ObaMao's chickens coming home to roost . . .

[goseminoles]

Yep. Happened to me.

[GeronL]

A lot of those “stimulus” jobs were very short-term like that.

[throwback]

My wife took a technical job that was over her head, but didn’t find that out until she had started it. She did the company a favor by telling the employer she was failing. They didn’t offer her anything else, so she quit. Of course she couldn’t restart her unemployment, and the employer contested any claims. The moral was: milk unemployment as long as you can (my wife could have coasted for another year on unemployment), because the government and the employer will NOT do you any favors. Employers want you to quit, and the government does not want to pay you unemployment.

[Logical me]

The longer King Obama and his Communists Party (formally the Democratic Party) are in power and the taxes goes up the more crap is piled on Americans. And what hurts is so many millions of Americans are so on the communists payroll (freeloaders) it may never change. Isn’t that the primary object of King Obama and his Communists Party to reduce Americans to begging so they can control the masses. Unemployment setup is a joke and should be based on the cost of living not a penalty for trying to help them selves by working what little jobs they can get.