Postponing unemployment after filing

August 21, 2024 1:11 PM

A company I work for recently laid me off. A month later they have some work for me but they can't use file a w2 and 1099 for me in the same year. So is there anyway to rework my unemployment to say that the company is keeping me on for another month? I've already filed the paperwork.
posted by captainscared to Work & Money (17 answers total)

What state are you in? Most of the time you can do some work while on unemployment, you just have to report your income and your check may be reduced for the week(s) you worked. You should be paid (by unemployment office) for the month they did not have you working, though.
posted by soelo at 1:23 PM on August 21 [1 favorite]

they can't use file a w2 and 1099 for me in the same year

...because they're incompetent? I assure you this isn't a rule anywhere. (I wouldn't press on it too much, your taxes will be much easier this way.)

What soelo said though. Your employer can also write you a letter stating the terms of your not-technically-re-employment (hours per week, benefit status, hourly rate) and you can submit that as supplemental documentation.
posted by phunniemee at 1:26 PM on August 21 [9 favorites]

Most of the time you can do some work while on unemployment, you just have to report your income and your check may be reduced for the week(s) you worked.

Seconding this. Doublecheck with the exact details for your state, but at least in New York State when I've filed each week I have to report a) whether I worked any days in the previous week, and b) whether the money I made for that week was more than a given amount. When I had temporary work while on unemployment, they would just deduct some money from my check, and then give me the full amount of the grant when the work stopped later. (Hell, the last time I was unemployed, I got a job after 6 months that I thought was going to be permanent, and then got laid off after only 3 months - and when I went to file a new claim, they ignored that and just picked back up where the old claim left off and kept going with that instead.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:37 PM on August 21 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Maybe I wasn't clear. In their books I will be on record for working full-time August and September even though I said I was unemployed mid August. Note I haven't taken any money from unemployment so far.
posted by captainscared at 1:42 PM on August 21

So wait. I'm going to repeat this back to you in my own words to make sure I understand.

This company laid you off in July. You filed unemployment accordingly. Then your company said "Whoopsie, we can bring you back for August and September." Is that right?

If that's the case, then I have some follow up questions:

1. How are they paying you for August and September? Would this be an extension of your original employment? Or if not - what are they doing? I would find out exactly how they're paying you first.

2. Are THEY the ones that are asking you to update the unemployment becuase of the W2-or-1099 thing? If so, I would ask to speak to HR and get them to explain why not, and ask THEM how to handle the unemployment.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:56 PM on August 21 [3 favorites]

You are eligible for unemployment you were unemployed for a whole month. I would be very weary of a company trying to extend your contact date. You need to be rehired to work.

It sounds like someone in HR is trying to avoid rehiring you by modifying the end date and that's poor practice at best.
posted by AlexiaSky at 2:06 PM on August 21 [5 favorites]

I would just call the State unemployment office and explain. Tell them you were SOL for a month, then got rehired for two months then back to being unemployed in two months. They will tell you what to do.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 2:35 PM on August 21 [4 favorites]

They aren't "keeping you on" , they want to rehire you after laying you off. Don't risk your unemployment benefits to save them the trouble of filling out another form or two. Even if you know you aren't trying to defraud the government, it may look that way if they try to doctor their records to make it look like you never left.
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 5:20 PM on August 21 [7 favorites]

they can't use file a w2 and 1099 for me in the same year

I don't think this is actually true.

I mean, I can believe they said it to you, but I do not think this is required by law.

(HR people, if I'm wrong please correct me)

Assuming they are wrong but clueless I would be wary of this messing with unemployment in some way that requires a lot of effort to untangle.
posted by zippy at 10:27 PM on August 21 [3 favorites]

Speaking as a small business bookkeeper who has done payroll for many years, whatever they are trying to do here sounds sketchy as fuck.

Get everything in writing from the company then ask the unemployment office how to proceed because I don't trust the company.
posted by Jacqueline at 2:35 AM on August 22 [2 favorites]

FYI The W2/1099 thing is a best practice for avoiding employee misclassification claims/investigations. Converting someone from employee to independent contractor while doing the same work on essentially the same terms is generally not recommended.
posted by ohneat at 3:57 AM on August 22 [6 favorites]

Either they really need you, or they are trying some kind of mysterious unemployment avoidance shenanigan. Whichever one it is, I wouldn't be interested in messing with my unemployment filing for six or eight weeks of W-2 work. I would reiterate my openness to ongoing 1099 contract work (at a greatly increased rate!) and continue my job search. My guess is that it is an unemployment shenanigan and that you won't hear from them. But if they really need you, they'll pay! Make them.
posted by Kwine at 1:33 PM on August 22

What if you register as a business and have them contract with that business for the work?
posted by Sophont at 2:06 AM on August 23

Counterargument that registering with a business would take to long, would be overkill and may impact your unemployment benefits overall, DO NOT do that.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:39 AM on August 23

Okay, I think I see what you might be worried about. Were you receiving severance checks that cover the entire period between when you were laid off and when the new work is going to start (which might explain why you waited until just recently to file your initial claim)?

If so, it might be worth calling up the UI office and seeing if it needs to be sorted out.

But if not, there's no concept of being on the books but not getting any paychecks that a UI system recognizes. They'd see that you were getting paychecks, and then you were unemployed, and then you started receiving paychecks again. That doesn't make it look like fraud, if that's your concern.

If you haven't been getting severance that covers the whole period between these two rounds of employment, just don't file your weekly UI certification for the weeks you're now working (or file but say you worked those weeks, if that's what your state's system requires), and when this work period is done and you start certifying again, they'll show you a form asking you if you missed those weeks because you were working, and you'll say yes, and you'll tell them where you were working.

(If the company were giving you a 1099 instead of a W-2 for this extra work period, that would make this more tricky, not less. In that case, you and the company would both have to fill out questionnaires about the nature of your work, whose equipment you were using to do the work, whether you were setting your own hours or not, etc., and then your former employer might get in trouble for incorrectly (re)classifying you as 1099.)

(And then, on top of that, unless this new work period ends up lasting more than six months, this actually leaves you better off than you would be if you had waited until this new work period were done before filing in the first place. In general, a UI claim lasts one full year, but you can only get paid for 26 weeks out of that year (barring, say, recession- or pandemic-related legislation making it more generous), and you can't file a new claim until the first year has elapsed. So if you end up being unemployed for more than 10 months, in your current situation you'd now be able to start receiving a whole second round of benefits two months earlier than otherwise, and these two months of new work would help contribute toward that second claim.)
posted by nobody at 7:36 AM on August 23

Not sure about other states, but in California receiving severance does not disqualify you from applying for and receiving unemployment.
posted by zippy at 12:15 PM on August 24 [1 favorite]

You are eligible for unemployment you were unemployed for a whole month.

This is also state specific. OP it would help us a lot if you could say which state you were employed in.
posted by zippy at 12:23 PM on August 24