I volunteered to lay off for a few weeks before the next job starts so I'm gonna get unemployment for 3-4 weeks. Has anyone else who's done this found it to be incredibly confusing and not user friendly? I swear I keep certifying my claim for the week over and over, yet when I log back in it says I still need to do it. Its almost like they intentionally do that so you'll unknowingly miss doing something for the week.
Unemployment Benefits
- Thread starter deadeyededric
- Start date
Assuming in Iowa? It’s dumb since they redid their portal thing. I just called them and they walked me through it. You can tell they deal with it constantly.
It does usually take 2 weeks on your first claim FYI.
Yes it is horrible. It took my wife over 4 weeks to get her first check and that was after losing her **** on someone. She had gone into their physical office twice and countless phone calls. Left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing.
Yes in Iowa. 2 weeks is better than a month or so. I got it for 2 weeks in Kansas one time admit took like 3 months to even get it.
A former coworker of mine filed for unemployment in Oklahoma. She had to get a state legislator involved to even get it approved. I feel like states such as Iowa and Oklahoma are making it harder on purpose.
I was laid off from my software engineering role at ACT, and it took six months to land an equivalent role. I never successfully received any unemployment benefits that entire time. Used every bit of savings i had to get by. It’s by design.
I think it b.s. you can't retroactively get it from your official lay off date also. It only starts the week you file. I was just going to eat a few weeks pay and not mess with it, but the next job I'm on going to is getting pushed back a few weeks.
I tried to get it for a few weeks in Kansas and it was a bigger nightmare than even in Iowa. And then they were only going to give me like 300/wk even though I'd been talking home 1800/wk for the previous 10 months. Thankfully I was only on the bench for 3 weeks.
You can file every single week and if you work, they don’t pay out. If you don’t, you get paid something. Working in the trades is always gets a little slow around the new year so I have taken it occasionally.
Its our money. I don't know why it's like pulling teeth to get it from them. Most people who claim clearly have a solid work history so it's not like most of us are abusing the system. I've been unemployed for maybe 2 months the last 4 years. And it's all been just waiting for jobs to kick off.
It’s not really that hard in Iowa tbh. The website just isn’t great. But that goes for any government website.
Could be an employer thing maybe? Sometimes they will fight paying it out, depending on the circumstance.
My employers havent contested it. They'd rather have me draw for a few weeks waiting for jobs to start than me switching companies. I'm in construction so mine have just been temporary/return to employer situations. I haven't seen jobs be pushed back like they have been this year. Its been a tough year for construction overall so I'm fortunate I've been able to stay busy 90% of the time.
There is a 10 day contest thing required by law I believe, once that passes, it clears and they process as long as there wasn’t any other reason to deny.
If it’s a temporary layoff in construction, that’s a no brainer.
The entire system like many government assistance systems these days are becoming so confusing on purpose, they want people to give up and stop trying to collect benefits that are theirs by law.
I drew about 10 years ago when the school district I worked closed, so we were all given pink slips but paid until September. I heard that I could apply for unemployment and called the office and they said even though I was getting paid during the summer and had another job lined up for the fall, since I was officially laid off, I could draw. So I did for around 11 weeks, played their game, filed two jobs applications every week, all done while sitting at home. I did get one letter saying that I would have to go over to office one day for a class to help write a resume and other ways to look for work. I went over for the day, was pulled aside by a gal that I used to work with and was told if I needed any extra help she would keep an eye out for me. It was hard to tell her that everything was going to be OK, .
I drew about 10 years ago when the school district I worked closed, so we were all given pink slips but paid until September. I heard that I could apply for unemployment and called the office and they said even though I was getting paid during the summer and had another job lined up for the fall, since I was officially laid off, I could draw. So I did for around 11 weeks, played their game, filed two jobs applications every week, all done while sitting at home. I did get one letter saying that I would have to go over to office one day for a class to help write a resume and other ways to look for work. I went over for the day, was pulled aside by a gal that I used to work with and was told if I needed any extra help she would keep an eye out for me. It was hard to tell her that everything was going to be OK, .
My wife went through same thing. Its intentionally difficult so people will give up and they don't have to pay as many benefits.
I’ve had similar experience to others here. Worked at a job in 2021 that told us we had to do 3 week furloughs in Q1. They said they had specifically designed the furlough system so we could draw unemployment for those three weeks.
Submitted my unemployment claim right away. Took two weeks to hear back only to be told there was an error on the form. And since it wasn’t submitted properly to begin with, my clock didn’t start until the form was approved. The form was approved after my furlough which meant I got 0 benefits since I was back at work.
Submitted my unemployment claim right away. Took two weeks to hear back only to be told there was an error on the form. And since it wasn’t submitted properly to begin with, my clock didn’t start until the form was approved. The form was approved after my furlough which meant I got 0 benefits since I was back at work.
I think they go back 18 months, were you unemployed for several months from 10-18 months?
I just filed last week. Technically I was laid off Dec.22. I was under the impression you couldn't get compensation for weeks prior to the week you filed. That would be great if that's not the case.
I meant the employment history goes back 18 months. So your wages, employers and everything during that time period are used.
