As we continue to navigate these unprecedented times, KCBS Radio is getting the answers to your questions about the coronavirus pandemic. Every morning at 9:20 a.m. Monday-Friday we're doing an "Ask An Expert" segment with a focus on a different aspect of this situation each day, sponsored by the San Francisco Police Department.
Today we’re looking at unemployment benefits and particularly a new program that will allow gig workers to apply for benefits with George Warner, fellow with the Wage Protection Program at Legal Aid at Work.
We enjoyed your visit the last time and got lots of great answers from you. So before we get going, this new wrinkle is a program called Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. Can you briefly sketch out who it covers?
Yes, pandemic unemployment assistance is for people who are self-employed and other workers who are ineligible for traditional unemployment insurance benefits, starting in mid-February retroactively and for up to 39 weeks.
And so this would include people like gig workers who were never considered employees under California law.
Yeah, it's a little complicated with gig workers. Some gig workers may be eligible for traditional unemployment insurance benefits, because even if they were classified as independent contractor, they may have been considered an employee under California law. So what matters is whether California thinks you’re employees, not whether your employer thinks you're an employee.
But it seems that the way California is handling the situation is that if they don't have records of your employment and you don't contest your classification as an independent contractor, you should be able to access pandemic unemployment assistance at least temporarily.
And does this include what we've all been hearing about, this $600-a-week specific to COVID-19 unemployment payment that's part of the federal package?
Yes, starting the week of - I think - March 29th. Pandemic unemployment assistance starts before March 29th but the $600 a week starts the week beginning March 29th, ending April 4th.
Okay, well, let's get to the questions and bang out as many of these as we can this morning.
I'm an Uber driver. I'm curious what the foundation or calculation is for determining what I will receive in unemployment benefits from EDD. How will it be calculated?
So that's one of those topics that depends. If you apply for traditional unemployment insurance and you ask EDD whether or not you should have been an employee and EDD determines that you're an employee - and EDD has done that in the past - they will look at your gross wages. If you apply for pandemic unemployment assistance, they will be looking at your net earnings. So it depends on which route you go. It's one of the reasons why it makes sense to go for unemployment insurance if you're a driver.
That said, there are some benefits to doing PUA, including that you're going to get your money a lot faster.
Do you have to make a choice either/or? Do you apply for both? We don't really know what it looks like yet on the EDD website because it doesn't go live - this PUA program - until 10 a.m.
Yes. So my understanding - it’s too complicated and we haven't gotten great guidance from the state - but my understanding is that if you have already applied for traditional unemployment insurance and have asked EDD to look into whether you're misclassified, you will not be able to apply for pandemic unemployment assistance right now. Some gig workers who have not yet applied for unemployment insurance may be able to go on the site now and access pandemic unemployment assistance. And the only way for them to do that would be to not list Uber or Lyft as their employer.
I was laid off March 15th due to COVID-19. I filed for unemployment for the first two weeks I was off. Here are the results: week one, denied due the waiting period - I thought the waiting period was waived due to COVID-19 - week two only paid $450. Why wasn't I entitled to the additional $600?
So for the first week, that person should not have gone in a waiting period and I suggest they send a letter. Either use the "Contact Us" function on UI Online or send a written letter to EDD to the address on the upper left hand corner of their notice of award.
For the second week, they're only eligible for the $450 because that week was before the first week that the additional $600 came into effect. So week three they should start getting the additional $600.
I had two jobs: one full time, one part time. I was laid off from the part time job, but I do still have the full time job. So I tried many times to apply online for partial unemployment benefits, got stuck on the page where I must fill out both hiring date and last date I worked on both employers. Fact is, I still have a full time job; because of that, I cannot skip full time employer on this part but if I fill out this part for both hire data and last date of work, I would be deemed a liar. And if I do, I will be in trouble for sure. If I leave one employer unfilled on application, it won't let me proceed. Due to this, I'm stuck. I can't submit my application. Please help.
Yeah, so unfortunately if you still have full-time work then you're not eligible for unemployment insurance. You have to be underemployed and part of being underemployed is that you do not have full time work. Just losing wages is not enough to be eligible for unemployment insurance, you also have to no longer be working full time.
I was laid off last year, opted into COBRA dental and vision insurance but now with the statewide lockdown orders I can't use either of those. It's my understanding that once payments lapse, that's it, no recourse to start again. This means I have to pay for months I can't use, which seems unfair. Is the state considering any allowances for this? Such as allowing us to skip payments on unusable months of COBRA coverage and extending the 18 month limit?
So this I can't answer, but I will just add that that person may want to look into Covered California to see if an exchange plan would be better for them or if they're now eligible for MediCal, but I don't know anything about COBRA.
And didn't Covered California extend its enrollment window specifically during this period?
Yes.
I have been paid unemployment but I have no idea where it is. How do I track it down?
I would call Bank of America. If you Google “Bank of America EDD” you should be able to find the phone number for Bank of America. That sounds like a Bank of America question, not an EDD question. And I think that people have had better luck getting in touch with Bank of America if they call during off hours.
And Bank of America has been handling the payments, that's the reason to that?
Yes, so most people get paid with a Bank of America debit card unless they affirmatively opt in to getting checks. It's usually faster to get the debit card and once you get a debit card, you can use that card to transition to direct deposit if you prefer to use your own bank account.
I'm continuing to work full time for a commission-based job. I'm now only bringing in 1/3 of what I was making before due to lower sales. Would I qualify for unemployment to make up for the wages lost?
Probably not because you're still working full time, although with the caveat that even if you're working for commission, you're still entitled to all of the rights that any employees have in California, including a minimum wage. So if you're now not earning because no one is buying whatever you're selling there may be a labour code violation there, which would give you a good reason to quit your job in addition to also demanding higher pay.
Will those of us who exhausted unemployment insurance benefits on March 28th of this year or earlier soon be eligible for a pandemic unemployment assistance in California?
It depends. So if you had exhausted your benefits but then picked up work or were soon to start work, but lost that job because COVID-19 or are able to certify that you're unable to work for another COVID-19 related reason, then you may be able to pick up PUA for the period between when PUA started in February and when the 13 additional weeks of unemployment insurance will start on March 29, 2020. But if you just were out of work and continued to be out of work after you exhausted your benefits through March 29th, then you will not be able to get benefits unfortunately.
Are all employees entitled to 10 days paid sick leave whether they have coronavirus or not?
So the new sick leave law - the Family First Coronavirus Response Act - those 80 hours of sick leave are specifically for COVID-19 related reasons. But in California, all workers have at least three days of additional paid sick leave to access. And most major cities - San Francisco, Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley, I think San Jose although I'm not positive of San Jose - will have significantly more paid sick leave available to you that could be used for any reason. And by the way, the 10 sick days for coronavirus are only if you're working for an employer with under 500 employees.
I just received my first EDD benefit payment and now new funds were supposed to be loaded today but they said their systems were uploaded to include self employed, which I'm not, and that I now have too much income in two weeks from a second job. Why would the system do that when I reported the same hours worked at the second part time job as I did when approved? Did the update do something very wrong? What do you think happened?
I don't know how to answer this one. If you were eligible the first time and you then attested to the same amount of work the second two weeks, then you should be eligible either way.
And if I could just make a plug at this point: you don't have to certify right now if you're on unemployment insurance benefits, unless you're still working part time. Those workers still do need to certify for benefits every two weeks and there's a special method to do that through Ask EDD Online right now, which is a little bit complicated.
And if you say it, then I'm gonna assume it really is complicated.
Yeah, this system is unnecessarily complicated right now. I'm happy to give answers, but I also want to let people know that I completely understand the frustration they're experiencing with the system right now.
Okay, fair enough. That's a pro speaking there.
I work for a non-essential home improvement construction company. We're still not allowed to work. My current claim balance runs out in two weeks and I still have no work. Do I open a new claim or ask for an extension?
I can't give a definitive answer to that question right now, but that person should be eligible for at least 13 additional weeks of unemployment insurance benefits under the CARES Act. The problem is that EDD has still has not implemented that change in the law yet onto their system. They're dealing with a very old tech system that takes a very long time to implement any of these federal changes. But that person should be eligible for 13 additional weeks of unemployment insurance.
I'm a Lyft drive who already filed for regular unemployment coverage last month, was disqualified from receiving it. Do I have to file another new or different claim for this new plan?
They're talking about I think that pandemic unemployment assistance for independent contractors, self-employed and so on.
My understanding is if that person has already been denied and didn't ask EDD to look into whether or not they are misclassified, that person should now be able to apply for PUA today through UI Online.
As a 1099 contractor I was paid over $16,000 in 2019, about $5,000 so far this year. My work has suddenly stopped due to COVID-19. Am I eligible for unemployment insurance benefits if my total income from pensions and investments exceeded $100,000 in 2019?
Yes. I think that the person's likely eligible for pandemic unemployment assistance, not unemployment insurance.
Can you get unemployment benefits if you are also receiving Social Security benefits for a person 65+ and was working full time before the shelter in place orders came down?
Yes.
My daughter did seasonal work at the ballparks. Does she qualify for any of these programs since there haven't been any baseball games yet?
Yes, that person might - if they have pre-existing wages, they may be able to qualify. If they have wage history they probably will have to apply for unemployment insurance first. They likely will not qualify for unemployment insurance but they should qualify for pandemic unemployment assistance because they had a job that they were expecting to start, but it has not started because of COVID-19.
But they should apply through the UI Online system and report their prior earnings. They will likely have to first be screened for unemployment insurance because they have prior employment wages from the last 18 months.
And parenthetically, a question here - so this is anticipated work. This person, I assume, hasn't been formally furloughed or laid off, the job just never appeared the way it always has. How do you deal with that?
It's a self certification process and if you can honestly self-certify that you no longer have a job that you were going to have because of coronavirus, I think that that's sufficient. Although I will be honest this is the first day of this new program and I don't think the federal government has thought through all the various permutations and difficulties like that - someone who was expecting a job to start but may not have received a letter saying "your work was going to start May 15th," because every year you just picked up that job.
Yeah, sounds like we may need to have you back next week as it sorts itself out.
I wanted to ask you, the Los Angeles Times out with a lengthy piece this morning talking about how there's sort of a quirk in the law so that if workers are told, "your hours have been cut," they would get the full $600 added federal coronavirus stimulus unemployment payment. How would that work? In other words, might there be a wrinkle here where employers and employees might agree, "well I'll work fewer hours, take less pay, and that would enable me to receive this $600 payment?"
Yeah so the state has this program called a work sharing program. And it basically allows that normal unemployment insurance rules do not apply. Instead, you get benefits based on the percent of hours that you lost rather than your past earnings history.
The work sharing program is definitely a great program for both employees and employers right now, especially employers who may have gotten a paycheck protection program loan and want to start paying their employees again, but have employees who may actually be financially better off by staying on employment insurance. Entering into a work sharing agreement with the state would allow a small business to use the paycheck protection program funds, allow workers to still remain eligible for unemployment insurance benefits and get the extra $600 and allow people continue to work a significant percentage of their hours. So that is the win-win quirk under the law.
Okay, so what does it take to enter into this work sharing agreement?
The employer should go to the EDD website and there's a whole page on work sharing agreements and they essentially enter into a contract with the Employment Development Department. There is some paperwork involved, but I think if the employer got through the paycheck protection program process they should be able to get the work sharing agreement process fairly easily by comparison.