How long have you had to wait for your unemployment after filing?

Mike Krumlauf

Mike Krumlauf

Award Winning Filmmaker
Since march I have not had one issue with unemployment so far until this week. Once i put in my claim for the 2 week window, if i file on a sunday, i get it monday or tuesday of that week. Its now wednesday with no direct deposit yet. Colorado said they approved it on the 10th. Anyone else deal with this?
 
Me and one of my audio guys applied here in NC at the beginning of May, after they supposedly got the system straightened out at the very end of April out to handle freelancers. Both of us are still waiting on overall approval. I had to "certify" for last week, as did my friend. He also had to certify for the weeks he's asking for back pay for, as well. I asked for back pay, but have not been asked to certify for them(bad sign?). One of our other friends applied before they adapted the system for freelancers and he's been receiving money for 3-4 weeks, now. We were half joking that we may actually be working again before they approve us for unemployment.
 
I'm in NY. I applied for PUA in late April after they readied it for freelancers. I've been certifying every week and haven't received a single payment or phone call yet.
 
Ive been getting payments from the week of march 31st with no problem until now. Never has it been this late in the week which has me paranoid the money went to someone else & someone or something messed up my checking account number. Only other thing I can think of is this week is overloaded with newer people requesting so its just backed up.
 
In VA... I applied the moment CARES passed, had to jump through a couple small hoops in the following weeks, and finally paid out (including back weeks) last week. It wasn't even a fraction of what I had on the books, but it was enough to pay my tax bill to the state that'll be due in a couple weeks, so OK.
 
In NY, I just today (May 13) received a letter from the department of labor that says it was mailed April 8. The letter denies my unemployment on the basis of insufficient W2 income (I only had one small W2 client). So, that came from the system before they instituted PUA and I applied to PUA. I'm going to ignore it for now, but it shows how laggy they are here in NY.

Mike Krumlauf - if they have you on a direct deposit, how could the money have gone to someone else? If it went through before, it should go through now. I would be worried about the funds drying up, but I'm pretty sure this unemployment fund is a bottomless pit backed by the feds, no? I'd say to call them but there's probably no hope of getting through. It does seem odd, though. Is there a chance you received a payment from an old client that week that fouled up the system?

UPDATE: the website now says they released the first payment for me on May 13 for the week ending May 10. Don't see it in my account yet. It says to contact them if 3 days have passed without receiving the money. I guess I'll have to call them to get my previous weeks...
 
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I'm in NYC also and I finally received my first PUA payment two days ago via direct deposit. I, too, applied in April when the PUA process was put into place. They're running way behind, but given the millions of people applying, I don't blame them for being late.
 
Jaime Valles said:
I'm in NYC also and I finally received my first PUA payment two days ago via direct deposit. I, too, applied in April when the PUA process was put into place. They're running way behind, but given the millions of people applying, I don't blame them for being late.
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Yeah I got my first deposit yesterday. No word on when I'll get the backdated weeks but oh well at least the money is flowing.
 
I've held off because the whole thing was a cluster here in Oregon, but I was looking through things now to apply.

From what I've read, it sounds as if you can apply and retroactively backdate it? So one could apply now, with a starting date of March, and receive payments?

Side note - I saw something about tax withholdings.... it sounded like these payments are going to be taxable income... really? Can anyone confirm or clarify that?

Unfortunately, it's the wild west and not much help. Emails and calls not answered here in Oregon. Sigh.
 
Unemployment is always taxable.

Note that you have to report any gig work you DID get each week, which is directly deducted from the payment... I don't really mind this, except they specify that you have to declare money earned, not money paid... so if I work a job Net30 or Net60, I'd just be out of cash for at least that long... and it's completely unclear how they expect you to declare for jobs done as package deals over, say, the course of several weeks, where you might work more or less any given week and you're not getting a dime of anything until the job is finished (or 30 days after).

The takeaway is that the unemployment adaptation for the self-employed has been designed by people who have never held anything other than an hourly government paycheck, and dont' really care to even try to understand those who work otherwise.
 
Yeah, I have absolutely zero work right now. Production is entirely shut down here in NYC (at least in the field I work in).

But, yes, I fully expect to have to pay taxes on this next year. Many years ago I was on unemployment for a while, and it was all taxed. I don't see this being any different.
 
filmguy123 said:
The takeaway is that the unemployment adaptation for the self-employed has been designed by people who have never held anything other than an hourly government paycheck, and dont' really care to even try to understand those who work otherwise.
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It's definitely a screwed-up system, but given that we're getting unemployment insurance we didn't pay into...I'll take it!

Also - if you make whatever claims you make, the worst that will happen is that they will call you to clarify what happened in which week. Then you could explain to them the confusion. Right?
 
ahalpert said:
Also - if you make whatever claims you make, the worst that will happen is that they will call you to clarify what happened in which week. Then you could explain to them the confusion. Right?
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If the past few weeks have taught us anything, it's to trust in the measured, thoughtful, benevolent edicts of government.......


.... at least that's what I'm letting GoogFaceAppMazonNSA read as my thoughts on the matter.
 
mcbob said:
If the past few weeks have taught us anything, it's to trust in the measured, thoughtful, benevolent edicts of government.......


.... at least that's what I'm letting GoogFaceAppMazonNSA read as my thoughts on the matter.
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The main point is - take the money first. Figure it out later.
 
Sure CYA - but can they do anything to you if you made an honest mistake misinterpreting the rules?
 
I always have them take the tax out before they give it to me. I don't want to treat unemployment money like it's an invoice paid, and separate out the money I need to save to give BACK to the gubmint. It just feels like a trick, a scam, for them to give you money and the reality being that some 20% of it just has to go right back to them. No thanks

Also, to the original question: I filed for unemployment as soon as freelancers were able to, and I ended up waiting about 6 weeks to get anything. No word of any back pay, but for the past two weeks I've received benefits with the additional PUA money.

Edit: also in NYC with zero work, a few super faint prospects dangling on the horizon but nothing solid or even on the calendar.
 
ahalpert said:
Sure CYA - but can they do anything to you if you made an honest mistake misinterpreting the rules?
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Mmmmust........ rresissttt........... urrrrrrrrrge........ ttto ppppposst........ ppppppolllllllittttttiicccccsssss..........

in short.... yeah, they'll ruin your f'ing life.

I'm in my mid-40's and this is my first experience with unemployment insurance, so I'm simply assuming the worst. Usually best that way.
 
mcbob said:
Mmmmust........ rresissttt........... urrrrrrrrrge........ ttto ppppposst........ ppppppolllllllittttttiicccccsssss..........

in short.... yeah, they'll ruin your f'ing life.

I'm in my mid-40's and this is my first experience with unemployment insurance, so I'm simply assuming the worst. Usually best that way.
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Ruin your life how? We can discuss potential outcomes without getting into political opinion.

My understanding from reading the forms I signed online was that if you lie to them they can claw back the money they give you, keep you from getting UI in the future, or make you pay penalties on top of the money they claw back. That last caveat would be most worrisome to me. But I still feel like there are humans on the other side of this interaction that you can interface with. You won't be put through the ringer without appeal. And we're all trying to figure out new rules, there must be some leeway for that.

I was just onboarded again by my only w2 client whom I last shot for in October 2019 because they accidentally paid me only half my invoice for that shoot. I'm worried about how this will look to the system, although I think that the hours they pay me for will be dated to last October. So I just have to have faith that the truth will prevail and I won't lose more money in UI than I make from having the invoice fulfilled...
 
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