Filing for Unemployment

I applied for unemployment on line in the beginning of August. It's a fairly easy process but does take some time. Close to an hour to go through all of the section and answer their questions and fill out the information. Once you apply you have to start looking for jobs immediately. This while the unemployment office processes your application and decides if you are eligible for unemployment. I thought that was a little strange.

In order to receive benefits you have to apply for at least two jobs a week. You also have to keep records of the jobs you apply for. I set something up in InDesign which approximate the form that I received.

And speaking of forms and information from unemployment (actually in Maryland it is called Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation what a mouthful or the DLLR). I applied on a Wednesday (that was mistake because the week for unemployment runs from Sunday to Saturday so if you ever are unemployed make sure you apply early in the week so you have time to find the two jobs you need to apply to) on Saturday in the mail I received four pieces of mail from the DLLR.

Not four pieces of information in one envelope but four separate pieces of mail. Seems to me they could have saved some postage put everything in one envelope. One of the pieces was a form to take federal and state taxes out of the unemployment payment. Yes, you have to pay taxes on unemployment compensation. Of course not being in the state of Maryland, I only had federal taxes taken out. Better to have it done now then at tax time. One of the other pieces (I don't remember what they all were) contained a booklet information on the unemployment process. The cover of the booklet was a dark green. On the inside cover was a list of the most important dos and don'ts. Problem the cover color is so dark it is hard to read the questions. Again something they might fix. I wasn't the only one to comment on that.

As I said, you have to apply to at least two jobs each week and document them. I had a table I created that keeps track of what I apply to. It lists basic information: the date, the company, how I applied, the web site address, type of job etc. I also keep any emails sent to me by the company I applied to as confirmation that I did indeed apply for the job. I also take a screen grab of the information on the job, the application (if any) that I fill out. Then any confirmation from the company that I applied for the job beside the email sent to me. You have to keep this information for a year in case you are audited at some point.

The other thing you have to do is go on the DLLR site and fill out a form so you can get paid for the previous week. You can go on line and fill out the form Sunday through Friday. If you don't fill it out, you won't get paid. In the first couple of weeks in the mail I would get a reminder that I had to go online (or you call in to a DLLR phone number) and fill out the form. After a few weeks I stopped receiving the reminders. I'm not sure if that is standard procedure or if you fill out the form in the time you are supposed to they just stop sending you reminders.

And that's the low down on filing for unemployment.