Unemployment CA Interview (collecting, receive, claim, payment)

[sunnycali8]

CA Unemployment

I posted this in correctly in California so I am re-posting here.

Background:



I had my phone interview yesterday. On my benefit certification, I understated income earned the first week and and overstated income earned in the second week which is what the phone interviewer lead with. She said they look at the weeks individually. As she went through the interview, it was clear that week one was understated (missing one day of earned income). The other week was overstated.



She did some calculations and said the amount was under $50.00 and penalties are only charged on over payments of $50 or more. Before the phone interview ended, she said the next step--the over payment department would review it and I may or may not receive a letter. I may or may not owe back the amount of over payment. If I did owe it back, they may or may not ask me to pay it back or they may take it out of my remaining benefit. A lot of may or may nots.



It was only after I hung up, that I made the connection the reason week one was understated and week two was overstated, was because I had claimed that one day of income earned in week two instead of week one. I redid the calculation and it is to the penny.



Also, I did some calculations and the amount of over payment in week one is actually $61.00. Based on that, I'm anticipating the possibility of a decision letter saying I owe the $61.00, plus 30% penalty, plus interest, plus the 5 week suspension of benefits. I understand it is nothing personal just how UI rolls. If UI can, they will charge the allowable under the law.



My questions:



1) If I get a decision letter with all of the above penalties, I believe I have a strong case for appeal. It is clear what happened and I had no intention of not reporting the income. I did report it in week two. The total amount of the payment for week one and week two I received combined is only $2.00 more than it would have been if the one day is correctly moved to week one.



I don't know if this is what the phone interviewer saw on her side too and why she was saying the over payment was under $50. Also could it be why she is using all the may and may not statements or are those statements standard procedure?



My only concern is I didn't catch the reason why and the more intricate calculations until after I hung up. So all that is showing in the interview notes is the one understated week the interviewer focused on and the one day not being claimed there. Only a brief acknowledgement on my part that week two had overstated income.



2) If I do not receive any letter and my benefits are still not released for payment (at this point two weeks), what is the appropriate wait time before I should call back and follow-up.



I would appreciate any suggestions on the best way to proceed.

[Chyvan]

If you get an overpayment with the 30% penaly, appeal it. If you get a 5 week disqualification, appeal it.

STUPID mistakes are not false statements. I'm going with the theory that you maybe worked on a Saturday and that's why it slipped into the next week.

You'll get everything fixed on appeal. Do NOT contact EDD for anything. You deal with an ALJ at your appeal hearing. The ALJ's in CA even to this day have consistently rendered rather fair decisions. They work completely differently than an EDD worker.

[sunnycali8]

Hi Chyvan,


Thank you for your reply.



Yes it was a Saturday and my pay-period ended on Friday. Saturday was on a separate time card.



What should I do if I do not get a letter and they do not release my benefits? Two weeks worth are in pending status right now. In a few days, it will be four weeks worth of benefits.


Is there a way to request an appeal to get my benefits released if I do not get a letter?


Also will it hurt my appeal that I did not catch what happened when I talked with the interviewer? Caught it after I hung up.

[Chyvan]

Originally Posted by sunnycali8

What should I do if I do not get a letter and they do not release my benefits? Two weeks worth are in pending status right now. In a few days, it will be four weeks worth of benefits.

You'll get a letter. Unless you have reason to believe that you're not getting your mail, it will come.

Originally Posted by sunnycali8

Is there a way to request an appeal to get my benefits released if I do not get a letter?

You can't request an appeal until a decision is rendered. If you know a letter was mailed and you know the date, you can appeal, but not before the letter is generated.

Originally Posted by sunnycali8

Also will it hurt my appeal that I did not catch what happened when I talked with the interviewer? Caught it after I hung up.

Doesn't matter. Your situation was ripe to make a mistake especially for a first-time filer. The work week was over, but not the UI week. Only someone that really knew this stuff would know it was a big deal, you didn't.

False statements are LIES to get more benefits, you didn't lie, you just made a mistake. A mistake that you'll never make again.

[sunnycali8]

Got It! Thank you for the detailed explanation.


"A mistake that you'll never make again." You are correct. Lesson learned!


Thank you again.

[sunnycali8]

I did receive my Notice of Determination letter. Two actually.The first one from the thread above is saying I'm not eligible to receive full payment under sec 1279 because I worked that week. Also they are saying I worked another week that I did not and have my time card to prove it.



The second letter is saying receipt of earnings (which was a bonus earned while employed but received while on unemployment) is making me ineligible for 1 week under sect 1252.



Only the one week noted in the above thread was brought up in the phone interview and not the others.



The strange thing about the letters--they are not showing any repayment or penalties. Just the past weeks that I was not not eligible to receive full or partial benefits.


Now my question is will a Notice of Over Payment letter follow? Did they change their procedure and now send the request for over payment separately?


If the determination letters are the end and they are not going to penalize me, will an appeal open a can of worms? Do I open myself up to them possibly collecting over payment from me depending on the ALJ's ruling.



My gut tells me that I should appeal as the determinations are not fully correct That way it is cleared and I don't have to wait for the next shoe to drop. If they rule for me or against me (I'm reading that bonuses can be a bit of a grey area) at least it will be done and over with and I won't have to wonder if a week, month or year from now another letter will show up saying I owe an over payment.



What is this best plan of action in this situation?

[Chyvan]

Originally Posted by sunnycali8

I should appeal as the determinations are not fully correct

If you don't, you won't get a second chance.

Originally Posted by sunnycali8

(I'm reading that bonuses can be a bit of a grey area)

There's no grey area. If the payment represents work before application, it doesn't go against your UI.

You should appeal for no other reason than it's wrong, and I'm tired of claimants doing nothing because "it's not that much money" and the EDD workers keep ripping people off. If enough appeals get filed, EDD will quit. The point is to get EDD to correctly do it the first time so that claimants downstream will stop getting ripped off.

I want to live a world where EDD is doing what the ALJs do, and no one ever has to appeal because every decision is absolutely correct and double checked. We're not even close. 55% of EDD determinations are reversed.

https://www.city-data.com/forum/unemp...confusion.html

If your letter uses that "in each of (05 weeks)" in like in this thread, then you get penalties. I never trust claimant paraphrasing.