Information on furloughs and filing for unemployement

Thanks to Judy Wolf (author) and Carolyn Doyle (proofer) for their work on this question and answer and step-by-step guide to dealing with furloughs and filing for unemployment in Indiana.

CAN I TAKE ONE FURLOUGH DAY OFF AT A TIME AND QUALIFY FOR UNEMPLOYMENT?
NO. This is a bit complicated. Keep reading.

DO I NEED TO TAKE A FULL WEEK OF FURLOUGH OFF TO QUALIFY?
NO. BUT you need to figure it out carefully. See the next entry.

SO, HOW MUCH OR LITTLE FURLOUGH TIME DO I HAVE TO TAKE OFF TO INITIALLY QUALIFY?
IT DEPENDS. The state has a formula to figure the weekly unemployment benefit you qualify for. You need to have GROSS EARNINGS that are less than that amount to initially qualify for unemployment. So, if your state benefit would be $200 a week, you would need to have GROSS EARNINGS of less than $200 in a week this quarter to qualify initially. That means you might be able to work part of a week. That would qualify you to draw unemployment NEXT quarter, if there’s another furlough that the union agrees to.

As a reminder, GROSS EARNINGS are what the company pays you BEFORE taking out all your deductions (taxes, health insurance, etc.). The easiest way to figure it is to use your hourly wage/rate. That is your gross earning rate.

WHAT’S THIS ABOUT INITIALLY QUALIFYING?
There is a one-week waiting period in Indiana.

WHAT’S THE WAITING PERIOD MEAN?
You don’t get unemployment pay during the first week you are unemployed (or on enough furlough to qualify, in our case).

Presuming the company will ask for additional furloughs in the future, and if Guild members agree to take them, you would get unemployment pay in the future if you do things correctly this quarter and file correctly in the future.

SO, I HAVE TO TAKE A FULL WEEK OFF TO “SERVE” THE ONE-WEEK WAITING PERIOD REQUIREMENT?
NOT NECESSARILY. You just have to be off enough time that your GROSS EARNINGS for the week are BELOW the weekly unemployment benefit you qualify for.

For now, let’s say your hourly rate is $12 and you had no OT in ’08 (this makes it easy to roughly calculate your benefit; fuller sample is given below). Your weekly benefit would be roughly $270. So, to meet the one-week waiting period, you’d need to have GROSS EARNINGS of less than $270 from the company in a week. Working only 22 hours would get you in just under the $270. Because we can’t split our days off (work part of a day, be on furlough part of a day), that would be 2 full days for someone working either 8- or 10-hour days. So, you could be on furlough 3 days (for those on 8-hour shifts) or 2 days (for those on 10-hour shifts), and you should be OK.

The state weekly unemployment maximum is $390, so if your GROSS EARNINGS are less than $390 in a week — either by working or getting paid time off (vacation, personal leave days, sick days, holidays, etc.) — you would be able to meet the one-week waiting period requirement.

In the future, if you want to get the full weekly benefit you qualify for, you’d need to take a week off. If you don’t, you’d qualify for a partial benefit. So, if you’re at $12/hour and worked 2 days and went on furlough for 3 days (on an 8-hour shift), you’d have GROSS EARNINGS of $192. You’d get unemployment of roughly $78.

HOW ARE WEEKLY BENEFITS FIGURED? GET OUT YOUR CALCULATORS!
First, you need to have earned at least $2,750 in the base period. For this quarter, that means all of 2008. You also need to have earned at least $1,650 in the last half of your base period. For this quarter, that means July-December 2008.

Now, for this quarter (April-June), your benefits will be calculated based on the 2008 quarter in which you earned the most money.

For those who earned $40,000 or more in 2008 (and this is rounded up a bit), you don’t have to do any math. Your weekly benefit will be $390, the state maximum.

For those who earned less than $40,000 in 2008, here’s what you can do to get a rough idea of your benefit. This translates, again roughly, to anyone making $18 an hour or less.  It’s clearly easier if you didn’t have any OT.

NOTE: The state will calculate your precise benefit once you enter all the appropriate information in the system when you file the first time. So if you don’t want to do this, don’t.

1. Figure out the 2008 quarter in which you earned the most money.
2. Figure 5% of the first $2,000.
3. Figure how much you earned above that $2,000.
4. Figure 4% of that amount.
5. Add the results of 2 and 4 together, and you’ll get a good idea of your weekly benefit.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you earn $12 an hour and had no OT last year (this just makes it simple). You would have earned about $6,240 in each quarter. So, following the instructions above:

1. $6,240.
2. 0.5 x $2,000 = $100.
3. $6,240-$2,000=$4,240.
4. 0.4 x $4,240=$169.60.
5. $100 + $169.60 = $269.60.

Again, this is a rough amount.

AND NEXT QUARTER (3rd Q of this year), your benefits will be figured on the second, third and fourth quarters of 2008 and the first quarter of ’09. You discount the most recently completed quarter; your base is the 4 quarters immediately before that.

For the 4th Q this year (Oct.-Dec.), you’d ignore the 3rd Q (July-Sept.), and your base would be 3rd/4th Q of ’08 and 1st/2nd Q of ’09.

WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM WEEKLY BENEFIT?
$390. This is for those earning roughly $40,000 a year. Those earning less will qualify for a smaller weekly benefit.

HOW ARE UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS PAID? BY A VISA DEBIT CARD.
A card will be mailed to you after your first payment is approved.  The Indiana Department of Workforce Development, which handles unemployment, says on its Web site that you you can use the phone to transfer funds free from the card to your savings or checking account, and the money will be there in 24-72 hours. The INI credit union does not appear to have this capacity right now, based on a talk with Jane. You also can use the debit card at a number of ATMs (a list is on the site — http://www.in.gov/dwd/2579.htm), with one free transaction a week, and at merchants that take Visa charge cards.

HOW TO FILE FOR UNEMPLOYMENT

THE FIRST WEEK YOU ARE ON FURLOUGH (OR TAKING ENOUGH DAYS OFF TO QUALIFY FOR YOUR WAITING PERIOD), YOU NEED TO FILE WITH THE STATE
During this week (weeks run Sunday-Saturday, according to the state), go online or in person and file for unemployment. If you go past Saturday, you can’t file for that week.