Reply #36: Also be very careful about your start date with a new job and your unemployment payouts

[cascadiance]

Make sure that the weeks you are claiming DON'T overlap with when you are officially on the new job. And keep good records of your offer letter and your first paycheck stub so that you can document when you started. Why you ask?

Well, the state and various companies DO fuck up some times in their record keeping, and it can be a REAL hassle trying to get things fixed when they do.

Fortunately I had my records to prove that they were wrong when they were alleging that I was falsely claiming benefits for a week or two that they claimed I was working my new job but I could show that I wasn't. Their original mail solicitation to me was sent to my address two addresses in the past and got lost, so they were claiming that I owed them that unemployment money plus a bunch in penalties and fines. They withheld my tax refund (never mind that my tax return DID have my proper mailing address on it where they could have contacted me), and I wound up having to go to court where to get my money back, as they couldn't clear things up just through phone calls and mail communications. Was kind of awkward having to explain that to my present job then, which kind of pissed me off!