Experiences collecting unemployment in a different state?

August 27, 2009 4:10 PM

Experiences collecting unemployment in after moving to a different state?

In about six months my job will be ending and I will be moving to New York. I wasn't planning on collecting unemployment, but it got me thinking that it might be nice help for a few months once I get a new job setup in New York.

Has anyone done this? Is it possible? Do you have to jump through a few hoops?

posted by mattsweaters to Work & Money (7 answers total)

Probably possible. I know many factors, across states, go into the amount of the benefits you receive. I had a situation where my benefits were based on my salary in the state I'd previously lived in, but paid in another state, which was where I was laid off.

The process might be simpler if you apply for unemployment while living where you live now, and then move afterward. I imagine many people move to find work after being laid off, and there wouldn't be much incentive to do so if they lost their benefits when they moved.

It also can't hurt to call your local unemployment office and ask.
posted by lesli212 at 4:33 PM on August 27, 2009

Assuming the checks get mailed to you, could you avoid the jumping through hoops and just have the checks sent to a PO Box place that will forward them to your new address in NY?
posted by halogen at 4:36 PM on August 27, 2009

I did this decades ago and it was a disaster. I was living in California. The startup I was working for went under. I decided I wanted to move back to Massachusetts. I asked the California EDD whether it would be a problem transferring and they said no. When I got to Massachusetts the Unemployment office there said that there would be no problem but there would be a six week delay. That was worse than useless.
posted by rdr at 4:38 PM on August 27, 2009

I moved from Texas to Minnesota due to a spousal relocation. When I filed I had to file in Texas. Part of their requirement is to register and search for jobs on their state job board. Since I was in Minnesota, not Texas, that didn't do me a lot of good, but I was able to register with the Minnesota job board and satisfy the requirement that way. They still put off my benefits for 6 weeks, even though they list "spousal relocation" as a valid reason for applying.

To be honest, it's a pain in the ass, much as dealing with nearly every government bureaucracy is, and I'm glad I found a job before having to put up with it.
posted by sanka at 4:40 PM on August 27, 2009

Oh yeah, I wanted to add - even though receiving payments isn't usually a problem because it's electronic in most states, you might still receive mailings from the unemployment office.

So, if you decide not to tell the state where you applied for benefits that you moved, you might have to take a quick trip back in a hurry on short notice. Most states have some sort of random interview process to ensure you're doing something to find a job - you might get called up, and you might not, but it's usually only with about two weeks' notice. And when you add in mail forwarding time, you might not find out until the day before that you were supposed to show up for an interview.

Again, though, I don't see why it would be necessary to lie because I bet lots of people move out of state to find work.
posted by lesli212 at 4:41 PM on August 27, 2009

I did it years ago in Maine with NY unemployment. Wasn't bad at all.
posted by KenManiac at 8:10 PM on August 27, 2009

This should not be a problem anymore. It used to be sticky because you could claim in any state, no matter where you'd worked, and states didn't want to deal with the mess of someone out of state, so you would have to claim through the state you were living in. Total clusterfuck, as I'm sure you can imagine.

But last year a new regulation went into effect which requires you to draw unemployment from a state you earned wages in, no matter where you currently live. For instance, last year I worked in Minnesota but then moved home to Massachusetts after I got laid off. As soon as I finished my job, I registered with the MN unemployment office, giving them my MA address. It was not a problem at all.

Also, most states now have everything automated. You don't need to go into an office to apply or collect your check. You apply each week online, and they do direct deposit. If you want to be prepared, just go to your current state's UE website and see how they handle it.
posted by lunasol at 8:17 PM on August 27, 2009