The Great Desert University has been approved for an unemployment insurance program called Shared Work. Basically it means that furloughed employees can collect unemployment for the unpaid furlough days we’re being forced to take off.
On the surface, it looks like a good idea. But there are some potential drawbacks.
First, unemployment eligibility has been extended to 59 weeks, which is about 14 months. That’s good. Because…this Shared Work program uses up your unemployment eligibility. Between now and June 30, we’re required to take 12 days—that’s 2 1/2 weeks. There’s no guarantee that GDU will not continue this furlough business into the next fiscal year; in fact, most of us think it will be used to engineer a permanent pay cut. If you use up your unemployment one day at a time, by the time you really need it to buy groceries, you could find yourself with little or no unemployment money left.
Many more layoffs are coming. First you get the furlough, then you get canned. It may be better to defer unemployment for the time when you really are unemployed.
Too, this looks like a huge hassle. To get regular unemployment, you can apply online. In Arizona, the Shared Work Program requires you to fill out a hard-copy form and physically file it. And since no one knows when you’re likely to quit or be laid off, it’s logical to think that you couldn’t apply for a whole chunk of projected furlough days. Likely you have to fill out and hand-deliver a form for each and every day.
The amount of weekly unemployment I would get under the best of circumstances is tiny. If and when I’m canned, I’ll need every penny I can scrounge up. If in fact you have to fill out and deliver a hard-copy form every week that you’re furloughed, it may not be worth the hassle to collect the minuscule amount I would get for one furlough day, and, since my position is nontenurable and very much at risk, it may be a bad idea to jump the gun on collecting unemployment.
Should I grab the money and run, taking a chance that I will not be laid off? Or wait and see?
Why not take the money (if it’s not too much trouble) and bank it? That way, if you do not lose your job, you’ve collected the unemployment to which you are entitled. If you do lose your job, you’ve collected for a certain number of days and have the money in the bank.
Hmmm. the hard copy and file routine every week will get old very fast, and for a tiny return. I’d be tempted not to do it, although Frugal Scholar has a good point, bank it. I think more investigation is needed – the thing that would worry me the most is that it would affect your eligibility or weeks when and if you are actually laid off and really need it. OTOH, why not collect interest? I don’t know what I would do…
It is a good idea: grab it, put it in the bank, and it’ll still be there to live on in the event of a layoff.
In the event of a non-layoff, it will be gravy. Hm.
I say no, if you’re laid off, it will be there for you. You’ve been planning and planning how to live on less for months anticipating the layoff. This will give you a chance to dip your toe in that “less” and see if it’s really going to work. Okay, I know, easy for me to say, since it’s not happening to me yet!
Could you take your 12 furlough days off at one time, right in a row and file for unemployment once for the 12 days? 12 business days at home would do a lot to catch up on reading, videos, cooking & yard work…kind of a stay-cation!
It would be nice, Neal. The university isn’t allowing people to do that. But even if it did, I couldn’t get by for two and a half weeks with no income.
Word is that Arizona’s unemployment offices are so overwhelmed it can take quite a long time to get benefits started — if you can get them at all. Some people have never been able to get their benefits, nor have they managed to get through to a human being, even after 40-minute waits on the phone. One newspaper report said that unemployment offices here are in secured buildings; the public is not allowed to enter.
Assuming I could get unemployment started for the two and a half weeks of furlough, the benefits in Arizona are so piddling you couldn’t begin to live on them. To survive once I’m laid off, I’ll have to start Social Security, which, even though it also is not enough to support one, is significantly more than the unemployment dole.
I have a question
I was called into a meeting with my boss a couple of days ago, he informed me that he had nothing for me to do as future projects are on hold, I have been with this company for 7 years
He said I had two options
1. take a lower paying job with the company that physically I cannot do
or 2.
Be laid off, receive 4 weeks severance, be paid two weeks for this pay period and my vacation pay as well
He explained that I did not quit and was not fired.
I have not received any of this money but it has only been four days
Now I have heard that this same boss is telling others that I quit
should I apply for benefits now or wait until I receive the 4000,00 as promissed
this is in Arizona
Also I am now receiving mixed signals from company members and am wondering if my boss was lying to me