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I hope I'm posting in the right place. I searched around in a few forums and didn't see an appropriate thread to teach me about this. I may just be bad at looking. I'm currently an adjunct college professor in the Boston area making $27,000 a year. I'm looking for longer-term employment nationally and just found out that my spring courses are cancelled for reasons of university enrollment policy (nothing to do with my course descriptions or teaching). I have about a month of work left and then I will be unemployed. Because hiring for teaching jobs generally follows a cycle longer than one month, I am planning on filing for unemployment insurance. I believe that I qualify for benefits under MA law (not a student, laid off, not a contractor or government employee), but I'm having trouble learning about the process. I was wondering what kinds of resources there are about what the filing process is actually like, what my odds are of qualifying for benefits and how likely I am to get the best-case scenario of 50% of my previous income for +/- 6 months. The state's resources are pretty vague about how long it takes for benefits to begin and about how long they will last. If anyone has practical advice or personal anecdotes about filing for and receiving unemployment insurance. I would love to find some trustworthy resources or places to go for advice that aren't clearly scams preying on desperate people. I'm looking more for general advice about the Massachusetts unemployment system or just the situation nationally, I suppose, but if you need to know things about me: I'm 33. I have a Ph.D. I have about $8,000 in debt that I had been paying off. I will have saved about ten grand by the time my contract ends in December (enough to liberate myself from debt forever, if only I still had a job in the spring). I have been teaching at my institution for about 9 years total, as a graduate student adjunct for 8 and most recently as a regular old adjunct after receiving my degree in August. The university job cycle for contract and tenure-track posts takes about a calendar year and begins in late August. I have been looking for those sorts of jobs all along, but none will start until between May and August and the odds of getting one at all for people in my field is about 20%. I have been researching and preparing myself for alternative paths for about 3 years, but I don't think I can transition careers in less than one month. The cost of living in my area is high, but I am used to living on $11,000 a semester, which is what I've made every semester except this one, when I had double the teaching load and got $27,000. Any and all experience and advice relating to unemployment insurance are welcome. Lots of people on the internet seem to complain about slow starts to payments, and there doesn't seem to be any good information to allow me to predict how long the payments will last other than a general statement that they last no longer than 30 weeks but that not everyone gets them for the full 30 weeks.
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Nov 29, 2015 20:30
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Hey there. I was on unemployment a few years ago in Montana. I think the payments started coming in within a month. I had to wait until i was done working to apply. The payments were based on the previous 3 quarters of my employment, not including the quarter I was currently in. I had to report weekly proof I was looking for work, but it was self reported and i was never audited or asked for resumes or whatever. Payments stopped when i reported i found a job. I recall that the steps and rules were pretty clear on the unemployment website and the material that was later mailed to me. The unemployment system worked for me and I was grateful not to suffer while between jobs. I didnt have any major problems so i hope once youn start to use it, you find the answers yourself. Best of luck to you!
dustbin fucked around with this message at 22:28 on Nov 29, 2015 |
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Nov 29, 2015 22:25
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I went on Unemployment in Virginia in April of this year. I filed for it and it took about a week for them to send all the information about it and get me registered. Then it took an initial week to process the paperwork. So it was around 3 weeks to a month where I didn't have any income. The most you could make was $375 a week depending on what you made on the last quarter. I think I received like $275 a week before. I had the option of forbearing my student loans because I was unemployed but I managed to make the minimum payments so I didn't even bother with that. Oh and they say they'll audit you but I never got audited. I still recorded all of the jobs I applied to and all the information I needed on a word document. I'm sure it'll be fun to look at since I applied to at least 20 jobs within 1 month. It was a super easy process but starting out is obnoxious. I would try to time it so you get your benefits as soon as you become unemployed. I think you could receive unemployment benefits as long as 3 months too.
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Nov 30, 2015 02:27
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Your pay is based on what you made for this quarter last year, so you will be fine (its a massive amount of bullshit). However, Its an easy process, just read everything carefully and use the oldest version of Internet Explorer you can find. (seriously, the websites were all made by a terrible contractor 12+ years ago and have barely been updated) do it this morning if you can, it doesn't take long. It is important to read everything TWICE and be as clear and straightforward as you can with your answers, they don't have rocket scientists working for them. Go herre: http://www.mass.gov/lwd/unemployment-insur/claimants/ and register and start filling everthing out. You can receive unemployment during any semesters you dont work, easily, as long as you file at the right time. Get in the habit of doing it the same day the last semester ends. Like I said, do it today... it takes like 2 weeks, and they give you a ghetto rear end debit instead of checks these days, so enjoy carrying around the card of failure lol. This info is as of 2 summers ago from my cousin in Boston who now teaches in Vegas. Its still the same, Im sure. Note: the website actually goes OFFLINE when they are closed. I am not kidding. note 2: concerning audits - I did get audited when i was between jobs about 5 years ago. everything was fine because everything was up to date and orderly on the website... but when my brother did, he didnt report he got a new job for like a month and he had to pay back the unemployment and 10x worth of fines about 10 months later. warcraft_boyfriend_99 fucked around with this message at 14:00 on Nov 30, 2015 |
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Nov 30, 2015 13:54
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