Sunday, March 1, 2009

The Useless Waiting Week

I would say that the average citizen doesn’t understand the Waiting Week. The number one call we received was about this crazy idea that a congressman had way back when. The idea was that it would save the government money since most employees were laid off for only one week out of the year and should be able to survive without compensation for that week. Little did he know that denying the rights of citizens to receive this particular week’s compensation would, in fact, cost the state governments large amounts of money due to the staff time it takes to field questions, etc. Later I will blog about an odd experience I had with helping others understand the waiting week, but I digress….

So what is the waiting week? It is your first week of being unemployed. If you lose your employment on a Friday, you obviously should wait to file until the next week as you have worked a full week and made more money than allowed. But what if you find yourself without a job on Tuesday, can you file then? Yes, it’s possible to work a partial week and still have that count towards your waiting week. Cool huh? But please don’t delay in filing thinking you had to wait a week before even submitting a claim. You then basically lost out on that first week. It’s possible to backdate your claim to start the previous week, but that gets messy and with staff overworked now, it would be very difficult to get approved.

And just because you file your claim that first week, doesn’t mean you are finished. You still have to make a reporting of your activities for the week. Depending on your state, this can be done by phone, email or on the state’s website. If you don’t claim this waiting week, then that puts a stop on your claim and can hold up your benefits. And nobody wants that to happen….

34 comments:

  1. Yep it's total liberal BS!

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    1. Actually a Republican congress amended the Unemployment laws in 1980 to add this waiting week. So stick that in your uneducated conservative hat and smoke it.

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    2. No, the democrats were in control in 1980, dope.

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    3. Repubs only had the executive branch.

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    4. It was a democrat congressman who pushed for the waiting week. But you can thank the conservative republicans for capping the weekly benefit amount

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    5. Yeah, the waiting week is definitely a conservative idea. You must not know your party very well. The republican party would do away with unemployment compensation entirely if they could.

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    6. Tell me Doug, do you think that is a wise idea to completely rid the U.S of unemployment benefits?

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  2. So, a person who went without pay for that first week they filed, never gets paid for it? Does that waiting week just stay there forever?

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  3. hello guys I found your website from google, after I read your story I wanted to comment a little, that your writing is very inspiring and Creative, so keep writing and good writing

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  4. My state has this. "Waiting Week
    Waiting Week is the first payable week of your claim for Unemployment Benefits. You will receive payment for the waiting week after TWC pays you three times your weekly benefit amount." So aparently, if i get payed three times i should get paid for that week afterward.

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  5. In my state The Waiting Week is really 3 weeks. Filed on the 29th of May, Then had to file on 5th of June. This was the Official Waiting Week. Filed again on the 13th so this was the real filing week. So checks are no longer mailed I have to waiting on the stupid debit card. It's the June 20th and I still do have a check but they said it's in the mail the card is anyway. Takes way too long.

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  6. Got laid off a Friday on the first week of august, then next week I'm looking for a job, all week, the week after that I realize that it won't be that easy and I file for unemployment, the first week I was laid off wasn't even mentioned in my claim and after trying to get them to backdate to my laid off date for that one week, to be considered "waiting week", they said they would only adhere to the date you CLAIM not the date you became unemployed. (FL)

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  7. after reading above, it's says, "was to save the government money" It's not their money, If the Employer has to pay a unemployment tax, and that tax goes into a fund and that fund is then payed out as unemployment well then?? also there are lots of people that don't collect, it was twenty some years before I ever had to file now bang you don't get a week. would like to see any of those politicians try to live on my wages then go a week with out and kind of income!! It's all BS (WI)

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  8. Who is this idiot. Obviously he is so disasociated with the reguular citizens in this country that he has no idea what we are going through. Was this ultimatly only his decision or was there a vote? I've been drawing unemployment for 3 months. Was supposed to get a check last week and didn't. They said I had to refile my claim wich I did. Now I'm three weeks behind and they said ill get a check for 1 week because of the waiting week. Put this guy in prison or at least fire him.

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  9. This is completely insane!!! I'm with Anonymous, I am a single mother that lives paycheck to paycheck. So when the place I work for shuts down for a week, I depend on the meager rations they call unemployment. I would love to see any one of those government officials live paycheck to paycheck AND be told they have to live without a weeks worth of pay and see how they handle it! This isn't there money to take! WE work for employers, therefore, employers have to pay unemployment benefits for us when we are unemployed or laid off. Where does it say the government is entitled to that yet too? The government gets taxes, taxes are used to keep the state going, maintain roads, etc. Unemployment is compensation for the working individual to keep the individuals house going, maintain driveways, yards, etc. Very frustrating!

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  10. It's a felonious crime to take what they know is rightfully yours for personal gain. They dont take away their own money but they take yours....you can use physical defense against that....

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  11. I don't get it. I've been filing weekly for five months. All I ever get is a letter stating there is question about my claim. Now I have one that says I'm in a "waiting week". WTF? I've been waiting for almost half a year!

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    1. Maybe you should answer the question. Obviously you filled something out wrong. All you have to do is call them or go to the local office (which will probably be less wait time). But your wait week should be back dated to the first week. They will do that.

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  12. So the waiting week actually begins the first week you are unemployed . If you are off one week and go back to work and then off again a few weeks later , will you have another waiting week ?

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  13. I made a claim when I lost my job. It took 6 weeks before it got approved. I had given up claiming by the time I received the approval letter in the mail. When I went to do the weekly certification it says "could not be completed as timely". Said this for 3 weeks. I couldn't get through the call center and figured that I only qualified for those first weeks that I received the check for. Two months later I've found that I just had to reopen the claim. So I've reopened the claim. Said it was approved the same day, certified the following week. I know that I don't have to do another unpaid waiting week, but do I still have to do the waiting week? So after I claim for two weeks, then I'll a check for both weeks aye?

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  14. Very interesting thing happened to me. I was in a severe accident I shouldn't of recovered from but I started to realize I wasn't going to stay disabled. So I filed my claim, i said too much in the interview being an honest guy. So they deemed me disabled, and disability deemed me able to work in the same week. So I filed again, they asked for proof I could work even though I walked into the office and filed in front of them. My doctor refused to make a note so I brought in my work rehab note, they said work rehab stating I can work didn't mean that I actually could work. haha So i waited for the doctor to get me the note and refiled. After 10 months of waiting I finally got it. My truck died the same week so I'm back to f'd in the a. beautiful stuff I tell you.

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  15. Where my wife worked told her that she was going to have to start taking 1 day off without pay for the next five, 2-week pay periods. She decided and it was acknowledged by her supervisor to take all five of the off-days at once and file a claim for one week of unemployment so as to at least get some sort of compensations. She had already had to cut back last year to getting only 75 hours pay ever pay period instead of the usual 80 hours. Now we filed for the unemployment and learn that Alabama has changed the unpaid waiting week from the 14th week of unemployment to the first week of unemployment, therefore she will not get paid for her week of unemployment. Now instead of missing a days pay for the next five pay periods she loses a whole weeks pay. I have been unemployed for over two years and this is really going to hurt as she doesn't get paid very much per hour to start with. When it rains it pours or I should say poors!

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  16. who ever thought up this rule never had to live paycheck to paycheck....dam bastards

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  17. Living paycheck to paycheck is the worst. I am a husband and father of 2 and im sick and tired of putting my financial security in the hands of an employer(who doesn't care about anyone's pay but their own)or the government (which also is largely self serving). I have found something that ensures my financial security and that of my family, independent of either the government or greedy employers. If anyone is tired of the bs and looking for a legal and legitimate way out, email me at esfowler1@yahoo.com. It doesn't hurt to at least listen to the opportunity.

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  18. I would love to that idiot Scott Walker try and get by on reduced wages. I make four dollars an hour less, doing the same job(I'm an electrician) that I did 3 years ago, and then try and wait a week with no unemployment. I bet he'd have his pathetic bald, combed over head all in a dither trying to get that law overturned. Oh wait, I forgot he's a politician, and none of this will ever affect him anyway!

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  19. Everyone can quit whining,,,my husband filed 16 weeks ago,,,because his employer had not reported any wages for him and all this had to be verified,,he has been waiting,,,and waiting,, we had 6 months put away to get through,,,but he hasnt worked since April,,,filed his first unemployment claim ever,,,anywhere,,,ever on May 19th,,we provided proof of income with pay stubs and w-2 and still nothing,,,just "they are reviewing it" believe me if he could go back to work he would,,we moved out of the state to be closer to family in case we needed help,,,wow,,we are old people and have never had to "deal" with a system like this,,,4 months,,everyone says when he gets it he will received back to the week he first filed,,,little consolation when youre behind in payments,,thankfully we are renters and dont have a mortgage riding on this money!!!!

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  20. What if I find a job during my 3rd week? Will I still recieve my waiting week?

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  22. They just gave me 2,000 for my waiting week y'all mofos!! You should really consider filing a new claim in Africa!! That's where I am. It's raining blood diamonds now!!!

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  23. I been getting unemployment for 5 months and now after i file for my weekly payment that say it was a waiting week why now

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  24. I lost my waiting week and had to wait another week for my waiting week. What is up with this?? It's not like I get paid that week. I don't understand why they can't let me have my waiting week. I called one week after I was laid off. Does it say you only have four days to file? Don't you have to make sure you are off a week before filing?

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  25. The system is messed up and YES it was a dumbass democrat who got this mess going. The waiting week is so that they can take your benifits hide them into a government secured account with no-name banks and then draw interest off them. They get paid , you don't. Wise up you dumbass liberals. VOTE republican this fall.

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  26. Question for Texas Disaster Unemployment. Is there a difference between disaster and regular ue? My husband applied 4 weeks ago due to Harvey but returned to work during the end of the 2nd week. Everything is being reported correctly per payment request when and that he has returned to work. However He still has not received any weeks of pay from UE,Which he should only be eligible for the first week and a half anyway. So long story short he hasnt made 2x the amount from UE nor exhausted his total amount of benefits to req. waiting week (hasn't received anything) so will he not get the waiting week at all?

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  27. Was laid off last October and was not allowed to file until my final pay ran out. I was paid the week I worked and five vacation weeks and counted it as income. Longs story short I was not allowed to file for six weeks and seventh week was the waiting week. Please take your vacation time and dont let it accrue. Thankfully I found a great job close to home and start today. Good luck everyone with your job search. They mKe it next to impossible to file claims.

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