U.S. Congress - S.3706 Americans Want to Work Act
S.3706 - Americans Want to Work Act
A bill to extend unemployment insurance benefits and cut taxes for businesses to create hiring incentives, and for other purposes. view all titles (4)
All Bill Titles
- Official: A bill to extend unemployment insurance benefits and cut taxes for businesses to create hiring incentives, and for other purposes. as introduced.
- Popular: Americans Want to Work Act as introduced.
- Official: A bill to extend unemployment insurance benefits and cut taxes for businesses to create hiring incentives, and for other purposes. as introduced.
- Short: Americans Want to Work Act as introduced.
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Displaying 61-90 of 13010 total comments.
since losing benefits in March, i have earned about 1300 in wages, and another 2700 in contract employment (taxes due on that will be due in 2011). will i still qualify for a new tier, or will i have to start a new claim (at lower weekly rate) because I had earnings?
i am in CA btw.
I am replying to myself LOL! For informational purposes (for others), EDD said today they do NOT count self-employment earnings as wages to calculate UI benefits.
That’s interesting. I thought that if you got into self-employment, you would be considered as having your own business and then you would no longer qualify for UI benefits, even if you had qualified previously. I’d love to ask EDD these questions but they probably won’t pick up the phone.
I had both contract work and wages. They did not say I would not qualify for a new claim (because I had had self employment), to the contrary, they said I could file a new claim, but that the self employment earnings could not count/would not be added in, when they calculate the benefits.
Thanks for sharing this clarification. I thought that once you had self-employment, you could no longer collect UI. The bureaucracy has its weird rules!
I’ve been filing schedule C for years now, and I’ve been completely up front with Tallahassee about my earnings and what little work I’ve had. I report each project as just that—temp project work, odd jobs, or similar. You have to be a little careful in the wording, since if you really had a going business that earned you a living, had an office, and a business for which in some cases you’d have to have a license or two, you would definitely be questioned about getting benefits while being “self-employed.”
2)
But these states are aware that employers are employing so many people for these little temp “odd jobs” that they know it’s part of the landscape. If you really had a going business, were legitimately self-employed, you’d be spending all your time working on it, not looking for another job. And if your earnings reported consistently went over your weekly benefit amount, they would just cut you off at some point, assuming you were no longer seeking work.
Maybe some states have different rules, but the bottom line on any kind of contract/temp work is that they have no employer to “pin” the UI potential tax increase on for the unemployed person, since no taxes were withheld or reported by the employer, even if a 1099 is filed.
Thanks, Nancy, things are getting clearer about “self-employment.” I appreciate your input. :)
Oh, right! I didn’t know you were referring to contract work, which is what most of us eking out a meager living are getting these days, if anything at all. I did that all last year; I reported the amounts and here in FL they give you a $58 “allowance” that is not deducted from your weekly benefit. So the effect is that you can stretch your account balance out a few more weeks or so than if you didn’t have any work at all. This must be roughly the same in all states, but I don’t know the details of other states. The negative is that none of those contract earnings generate employer taxes into the state UI funds, so there is no employer to base a new claim on in future, and no funds recorded on which you could base a new claim if you needed it.
2)The only saving grace is if you have any kind of work-related expenses, employee expenses or home office or whatever, those can be deducted on Schedule C, as long as you show a profit at least once every few years or so (so it doesn’t look like a hobby deduction).
FOR CALIFORNIA:
Talked to CA EDD, who told me that April 1 to June 30 is the second quarter of 2010, and that a new claim based on earnings in that quarter can be filed after October 1. The minimum weekly benefit is now $40.
The Tier V legislation will likely NOT be passed before Oct. 1. This means that I will (I assume) be forced to file a new claim, since I have had earnings that exceeded (by about $500) the state mandated $900. If memory serves, the way it worked on the last Tier was that if you had earnings in the quarter that exceeded $900, you had to file a new claim and did not qualify for the new Tiers, is that not correct?
I guess this is why Congress has these three months gaps in between passing legislation to extend. It’s like clockwork. Do they do this to weed out people who have eked out a bit of work so fall off eligibility?
Is anyone seeing a flash of red arabic lettering when logging on? It flashes for half a second behind the red ‘donate now’ band of color. Geez. Makes it look like you’re ‘really’ donating to Al Qaeda.
It may be too late for your situation, but that new law that passed for the continued tiers has a lesser known provision in it that allows for more leeway for people taking part-time or temp work, in order not to be punished for it so much. I don’t know if it would apply in your case or the exact details of the law. But you might want to check into that.
I guess I would need to read Stabenow’s bill to see if there are any provisions that would override CA law. As I just learned today, anyone in CA who earns more than $1,300 in a quarter, or $900 in one quarter and $299 in another, would have to file a new claim. On the ONE temp job I have been able to land, I earned $150 more than the CA minimum, so yes, I would be elible to file a new claim after Oct. 1, but the weekly benefit would probably be the minimum — $40, versus the $450 I would have gotten on a Tier V. I am pretty sure I am out of luck.
Makes no sense to ‘punish’ those who are trying to work.
Actually, you are required ot file a new claim in CA if you have earned $1,300 in any one quarter, OR if you earned 900 in one quarter and 299 in another. I will not qualify for the Tier V.
I asked EDD today why they were ‘punishing’ those who were willing to take work (however brief and at low pay) by this ‘rule’ and she hung up on me. And I was not being rude, I was merely pointing out that their logic rewards those who don’t work at all. It’s possible it was just a phone disconnect, but I doubt it. I think she hung up on me.
One more! CA EDD says that it’s possible the Tier V verbiage could override their state UI benefit rules, so need to read the bill. Can’t find it online just yet.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/38584698#38584698
I think a Jobs Bill should be done instead of another UIB extension. The government should give out jobs instead of free money. The government could have used the over $200 billion already spent on all the UIB extensions to reestate the Civil Works Adminstration (CWA) and the Works Progress Adminstration (WPA) that provided millions of jobs during the Great Depression. That would have silenced the critics of the UIB extensions that say that the unemployed are “lazy and do not want to work”.
We give free money to mortgage companies and banks and sometimes auto companies, but not the unemployed?
this is just freaking great they are now using tax payer money to train foreigners to do our jobs.
“a hand-picked Obama appointee has launched a $36 million program to train workers, including 3,000 specialists in IT and related functions, in South Asia
Following their training, the tech workers will be placed with outsourcing vendors in the region that provide offshore IT and business services to American companies looking to take advantage of the Asian subcontinent’s low labor costs. "
http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/integration/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=226500202
The Bill may now be seen at US Senate site under active legislation.
Hello, I am having trouble locating it on their site (which isn’t all that easy to read) Can you describe where it is on the page please?
http://thomas.loc.gov/
Copy and paste the above; under search bills, click on Bill # and type in S.3706. It should come up for you.
Let me know if you are still having difficulty finding it.
Good morning. It’s nice to open this new bill’s page and be able to see all comments left without someone having blocked them all. I have a question for those in the know in California.
I am going to be working a temporary job from the middle of this month, until the middle of November (thank you God) After reading a few comments on this board, I started to get nervous that if I work and earn over $1,300 in a quarter (which I’m sure I will) that I would have to file a new claim and no longer get the $450 a week I was getting from UI. I decided to look in the hadbook, and found an interesting tid bit. It says "To requalify for another claim you must have worked and earned at least (1) $1300 in one quarter, or
(2) at least $900 in your highest quarter and a total of 1.25 times
your high quarter earnings DURING THE BENEFIT YEAR OF YOUR ORIGINAL CLAIM. I’m thinking that since my original benefit year was 2008, I should be OK to work this job, and get the difference from UI. Any thoughts?
You will be fine. My original claim was 2008 also. I have exhausted every tier, SEB, etc. Fortunately, this bill is for folks like us. Of course, you need to live in a state with unemployment of 7.5 or greater. Not sure where you are but Georgia is at 10% (on their website) but that does not include any adjustments for July. I am going to check DOL and see where we are.
Good Luck and, by the way, love you online name…would love to see more positive people on this site as opposed to S.1966 where it got really awful.
Thank you so much for the information kc3295. I was up late last night thinking about if it was a good or bad idea to take a chance on this job. But after doing some research and hearing from you, I doubt I’ll have that problem tonight.
Thank you for the compliment. I know exactly what you mean about the S.1966 page. It’s been bad over there for sometime, and has gotten even more ridiculous in the last few weeks. I pray that this page gets us back to what we had long ago with S.1966, a site where people could come for support and information.
These last two and a half years have been the worst of my life. I can either let it get me down, or fight through it. I choose to keep a positive outlook on life. I have faith, family, and friends. So though I’m money poor, I’m rich with loved ones. They keep me going.
Amen, Girlfriend! I left S.1966 because of the “poison”. We are all antsy, but we need to keep the faith. After working for 35 years, these last 2.5 years have to, to say the least, interesting. But something always comes along to save the day – LOL
Keep the prayers coming and skip the junk if it starts here!
Hi — I am in the same boat as you. I spoke to three people at EDD, as I worked a temp job in June and made more than the $1300 limit. I was told that I would be eligible to file a new claim (I currently have exhausted all Tiers btw) after October 1 based on earnings in my 2nd quarter of 2010 (April 1 to June 30, 2010). Anything you earn AFTER June 30 is considered 3rd quarter earnings. Unless there is a provision in the Stabenow bill that overrides California rules, I am out of luck and will not qualify for the Tier V, ALL BECAUSE I WORKED AND MADE MORE THAN $1300 in the 2nd quarter. The killer is, I only made $150 more than the ‘limit’ of $1300. Unbelievable.
I am STILL looking for some reason why I still can qualify for Tier V, but if I find it I will be surprised!!
To clarify, you do have to file a new claim if you make more than what is stipulated. But if you work from mid=August to November, those earnings are going to be counted as 3rd quarter earnings. And you can’t file a new claim for 3rd quarter earnings until what, January?
Let’s say this bill passes in October or November. You then file for the Tier V. As long as it’s after Oct. 1 when you file, the State is going to look at 2nd quarter earnings. Assuming you don’t have enough earnings to require you to file a new claim, you will get the Tier V.
I THINK you will be OK, but if I were you, I would definitely call EDD and run it by them. Just say you have a shot at a job and want to know how that would effect your ability to go on Tier V if the latter goes into effect after October 1.
The people at EDD I spoke with did not know of Stabenow’s bill. They do now.