Can someone collect unemployment benefits while on disability?

September 7, 2020 8:07 AM

Someone I know is out of work, their short term disability payments expired, and they have no income. Their job is being held for the next four months. Can/should they file for unemployment?
posted by MisantropicPainforest to Work & Money (9 answers total)

Anyone can file. You don’t have to know if you qualify to apply.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:16 AM on September 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

Generally, to be eligible for unemployment you must be able to work and looking for work. If your friend remains unable to work due to disability, he/she would not be eligible to receive unemployment benefits. In this event, presuming it wasn't a pregnancy related disability which is time bound (usually 6-8 weeks from date of delivery), they might consider appealing to the disability insurer via its usual appeals process.
posted by MissPitts at 8:20 AM on September 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: They worked part-time so there was no long-term disability policy---the short-term disability policy expired.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 8:22 AM on September 7, 2020

There is no reason not to apply. Applying when you're not sure if you qualify is totally appropriate and not fraudulent. The rules are different in each state and depend so much on the specifics of the situation that as stated, the question of whether they will receive benefits is unanswerable as is, but the answer to the question asked - "can/should they apply for unemployment?" - is an unequivocal yes.
posted by brainmouse at 8:37 AM on September 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Is there any possibility of something happening with their employer? Like could they take this as a signal of something else? that they are looking for work and actually able to work?
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 8:49 AM on September 7, 2020

If it was just short-term disability, they should go ahead and apply. If they're in the process of applying for Social Security Disability or Supplemental Security Income, it will throw a bit of a wrench into that process and they won't be able to get credit for the time they were getting unemployment, but overall shouldn't sink their application - it'll just change the dates a bit. It's not uncommon to hear in a Social Security hearing that someone had to do this to keep eating, and while it's not ideal, judges usually get that they had to do that. If they're having ongoing disability issues, I'd recommend contacting the state's department of human services and seeing about getting assessed there as well.
posted by bile and syntax at 9:18 AM on September 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

Generally, to be eligible for unemployment you must be able to work and looking for work.

Note that in some states this is currently being waived or ignored due to COVID-19. Especially the "looking for work" part. (*Waves from Ohio*)

Their job is being held for the next four months.

It's not clear to me what you mean by this - they are not currently working (because disability? COVID? the company has nothing for them to do?) but the employer has promised that they will have a job to come back to sometime in the next four months?

Is there any possibility of something happening with their employer? Like could they take this as a signal of something else? that they are looking for work and actually able to work?

This is . . . sort of unanswerable? Like, people can take all sorts of things as "signals" that aren't intended as such?

Again and also, how states are set up for unemployment in the first place can vary quite a bit, and even more now in the time of COVID. So definitely have your friend (or you) do some research on the relevant state government websites.

But generally, unless your friend has been asked to come back to work and refused - which doesn't seem to be the case if their job is being "held" for the next few months - then I think they should go ahead and apply.
posted by soundguy99 at 3:17 PM on September 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

This suggests that his current employer will probably be notified if he files for unemployment. Normally, if you file for unemployment, you are saying that you are available to work, able to work and actively seeking work. This standard may be relaxed due to pandemic - details depend on the state but your friend should expect the employer to know sooner or later that they filed.

Your question makes me wonder if your friend is not actually able to work right now and the employer might be expecting them to come back if they are able to work More details might get you better answers here.
posted by metahawk at 6:31 PM on September 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

Yes, seconding metahawk - the employer will be notified that your friend has filed. (I work for a very small company so while I didn't actually see the paperwork first hand I had a couple of conversations about it with my boss & our office manager.) The employer has to fill out some forms confirming to the state that the laid off employee meets whatever the state's requirements are to be eligible to collect benefits - income, length of time worked for the company, period of time worked, part time or full time, that the employee wasn't fired and didn't quit of their own volition, some basic factual stuff like that. (Also I believe the answers are a factor in determining the dollar amount of benefits received.) In normal times I believe this paperwork has to be filed & processed by the state before benefits can be collected. But after that the employer is out of the loop, they don't get updates on the ex-employee's job search or working status or anything.

Again, though, each state has its own criteria for eligibility and its own response to dealing with the mass unemployment caused by COVID-19, so without knowing which state your friend is in there's not a lot more help we can give. But my impression is that most states have put some work into expanding and clarifying their offical websites explaining unemployment in the age of coronavirus, so that should help. (Make sure you're looking at the official government pages and local news sites, not like an article on Forbes.com or something randomly found via Google.)
posted by soundguy99 at 4:43 AM on September 9, 2020