Our new Indie Games subforum is now open for business in G&T. Go and check it out, you might land a code for a free game. If you're developing an indie game and want to post about it, follow these directions. If you don't, he'll break your legs! Hahaha! Seriously though.
Our rules have been updated and given their own forum. Go and look at them! They are nice, and there may be new ones that you didn't know about! Hooray for rules! Hooray for The System! Hooray for Conforming!

Huge Unemployment Claim Problem

I've been collecting unemployment insurance for probably two-to-three months now, and I recently received notice that my claim was being challenged. If this goes through I'm going to end up paying 4x what I received back to the state in damages which is not going to work well since I have no source of income right now. Assuming that I am completely in the wrong here (Edit: this was completely by mistake, I did not intentionally defraud the state), how the hell do I resolve this?

A short version of my story may provide some more insight:

My claim was for the four years I worked as a co-op student, receiving no credits on my transcript. I didn't think that would be a problem since there was no expressly mentioned rules about cooperative education on the claim forms when I signed up. I think there is some distinction between an internship that results in college credit and jobs that don't, but I need help deciding how I should determine that.

Iroh on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

Posts

  • VisionOfClarityVisionOfClarity Registered User
    Call a lawyer.

  • IrohIroh Registered User
    Call a lawyer.
    I can't imagine they'd advise me on this for free.

    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • VisionOfClarityVisionOfClarity Registered User
    Many will give you a free consultation or opinion on whether you need representation or look into legal aid. If you're not even sure how much if any trouble you are in it's worth calling a lawyer.

  • SentrySentry Registered User regular
    Um... so, wait... you were a student, but not getting any credit? You weren't in any classes? Did you pay any tuition? If not, you were pretty clearly not a student.

    Doing an internship for no credit doesn't make you a student. I hope I'm misunderstanding what you typed here.

    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    wrote:
    When I was a little kid, I always pretended I was the hero,' Skip said.
    'Fuck yeah, me too. What little kid ever pretended to be part of the lynch-mob?'
  • Lord YodLord Yod Registered User regular
    What state do you live in?

    steam_sig.png
  • IrohIroh Registered User
    Sentry wrote: »
    Um... so, wait... you were a student, but not getting any credit? You weren't in any classes? Did you pay any tuition? If not, you were pretty clearly not a student.

    Doing an internship for no credit doesn't make you a student. I hope I'm misunderstanding what you typed here.
    Yeah sorry for the confusion, I was in a hurry. I had this coop position in addition to being a full time student. The work is recorded on my transcript but did not grant any credits.

    This is in Michigan.

    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • baudattitudebaudattitude Registered User regular
    This is strictly how things were explained to me, they may only apply to Oregon, they weren't told to me by a lawyer and I am not a lawyer. Now that those disclaimers are out of the way:

    As I had it explained to me, if you are doing anything that prevents you from taking a job, you are not eligible for unemployment benefits. If you were a full time student and are applying for unemployment on a period where you were going to school, your school would interfere with your ability to take a paying job. Likewise, if you were working as an unpaid intern, that is going to interfere with your ability to take a paying job. Either of those might disqualify you.

    If you are a student, your college may offer free or heavily subsidized legal services. That might be something to look at.

  • RaneadosRaneados Registered User regular
    also remember that ignorance of the law is not a legal defense

    Dubh wrote: »
    Rane is the future of ancient greek tradition
  • khainkhain Registered User regular
    At least in Washington, you can get unemployment as a student, you just have to fill out some special forms, however I would think that there is a rather large difference between going to school for credits and doing a coop especially if you got paid for it. I think you either need to talk to the unemployment office or a lawyer since this seems like a fairly specific situation and you're probably not going to find anything on it in the unemployment paperwork.

  • IrohIroh Registered User
    After a lengthy discussion with the UIA I found out that I'm not likely in any real trouble, but I will have to start a repayment schedule.

    So problem solved. All that's left is to actually find work within thirty days.

    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Sign In or Register to comment.