Confused about Unemployment benefits in CA

April 19, 2023 2:16 PM

Suppose I was a salaried employee of a company, now on unemployment. Now I'm doing 1099 work as a freelancer and don't intend to return to salaried work. However, I'm still only earning a small fraction of what did before. Two questions inside!

1. How does working for small sums of money affect my unemployment benefits? Will I still get any?
2. The platform I'm using, Upwork, only pays out when I request it. Do I need to report that I worked and will eventually be getting paid, each week? Or do I only report it when I take a payout?

posted by BuddhaInABucket to Work & Money (2 answers total)

With regards to working part-time while receiving unemployment and looking for full-time work:

1. Typically 75% of the weekly earning from the part-time work will be deducted from your weekly unemployment benefit. See the "What will I be paid if I report wages?" section at CA EDD: Reporting Work and Wages FAQs.
2. Per CA EDD: How to Report Work and Wages you report your part-time work and gross wages (wages earned before any deductions) during the actual week you worked and earned the wages, not when you receive your pay.

posted by RichardP at 2:52 PM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

Most states there is a form you fill out weekly for your claims and it includes a space to put down how many hours you worked that week and the pay rate even if you haven't been paid yet. If they are confused about your answers then someone will call or email you.

They understanding that occasional contract labor, temping, etc. doesn't mean you have a new full-time job and there's a formula for how much you can earn in a week and still get benefits for that week.

Just keep filing claims every week, even in which in which your temp earnings are too high to get benefits, so that your waiting week doesn't restart.
posted by Jacqueline at 5:27 AM on April 20, 2023