General EB Discussion - Ongoing

Thank you so much! This has to be the best forum and group of people I've ever seen on the internet.

Rosemary

If I receive ALL (99 weeks) & go through ALL available TIERS - - WITHOUT having received ANY $$ from Florida's "EB" - - then, when My Tier 4 expires, I will NOT be eligible for Florida's EB. Is that correct?

Michael55 wrote:If I receive ALL (99 weeks) & go through ALL available TIERS - - WITHOUT having received ANY $$ from Florida's "EB" - - then, when My Tier 4 expires, I will NOT be eligible for Florida's EB. Is that correct?

Hi Michael - If you've received 99 weeks, then you have already received 20 weeks of EB. All the tiers + the 26 weeks of regular unemployment = 79 weeks + EB (20 weeks) = 99 weeks.

this is from awi web site
This legislation does not add any additional weeks of EB if all entitlement to EB has already been exhausted.

Just an FYI, since Ive had several PM's coming to me for my opinion on whats going to happen - Although many of you are able to claim weeks on the EB claim link at AWI's site, remember that this isnt the same as claiming and funding regular weeks. The retro pay they are calculating must first be approved though AWI before its sent etc, also they will not pay it until the written notices to everyone have been mailed out, which they are required to do by law. I think we waited all of 3 weeks last year when EB kicked in for AWI to get their computers right and notices mailed even though we claimed online the beginning of April 09, If I remember correctly it was first week of May 09 that I received a payment . Now that they have updated for EB already it shouldnt take near as long I would think, however it isnt going to be 2 business days like your normal weeks. Keep an eye our here in this topic for those who will post about turnaround times for payment received and also we have an "EB EUC AND UC Eligibility" which is a dedicated topic to seeing if you are even eligible for EB etc.

Hope this helps those of you who asked

I applied for the first time for EB on wednesday. It asked for SS#, name, address, phone, etc. Then a couple of pages in, a review page came up with info about me which was correct but that I didnt enter. So I knew it had my info. Next it showed I had 3 weeks of EB coming which again coincided with my last EUC check and was right on the money. Claimed those three weeks. Did'nt have to provide proof of job seach. Then it gave me a confirmation number, and that was it. The whole thing only took about ten minutes or so. Oh yeah, it also allowed me to enter info for direct deposit.

That said, nothing is reflected or changed in my online unemployment account, the one I have used for UI and all Tiers of EUC. It remains thus far showing my last EUC activity and a balance of zero. I'm thinking I'll get a check and my unemployment account will be updated by next friday.

No update of my account either Jeff and I also did the application on Wednesday. Seems to be no rhyme or reason to who gets updated first(I'm sure it's some super secret). Seems quite a few posters on Unemployed Friends are seeing updates(BTW...are you the same Jeff on U.F. with the Stevie Ray Vaughn avatar?). Well with any luck maybe we will update soon.

GonzoFL wrote:No update of my account either Jeff and I also did the application on Wednesday. Seems to be no rhyme or reason to who gets updated first(I'm sure it's some super secret). Seems quite a few posters on Unemployed Friends are seeing updates(BTW...are you the same Jeff on U.F. with the Stevie Ray Vaughn avatar?). Well with any luck maybe we will update soon.

Yes, same guy. I don't know why Fl. didn't just use our same old account without having to reapply. And yet they had to use my old account info to determine when my EUC expired. Doesn't make sense. Hope there aren't any snags cause I feel like I'm fishing with 2lb test line.

Okay so my account was updated overnight. I now have a balance of $5500 but no checks have been issued. This is my first time collecting EB so this may be a dumb question... Even though I have a $5500 balance it still gets stopped June 5th regardless of how much I still have left in my account.. right?

frustratedinfl wrote:Okay so my account was updated overnight. I now have a balance of $5500 but no checks have been issued. This is my first time collecting EB so this may be a dumb question... Even though I have a $5500 balance it still gets stopped June 5th regardless of how much I still have left in my account.. right?

My situation is similar to yours. My account updated today. And yes, it's my understanding that we won't be able to collect beyond the cutoff date of June 2 or 5 or whatever it is. But it would be good if I am wrong.

frustratedinfl wrote:Okay so my account was updated overnight. I now have a balance of $5500 but no checks have been issued. This is my first time collecting EB so this may be a dumb question... Even though I have a $5500 balance it still gets stopped June 5th regardless of how much I still have left in my account.. right?

That's correct, so you can't claim for any weeks beyond that cutoff date. So the most anyone could get would be 14 weeks if they exhausted their EUC tiers by Feb 27. You'll get whatever number of weeks you have from your last claimed EUC week til the week ending June 5.

if congress extends eligibility till dec 31 does that mean EB will extend as well?

FYI.. My payment was credited today for 3 weeks! yay! finally! Next date to claim is Monday the 31st.

frustratedinfl wrote:FYI.. My payment was credited today for 3 weeks! yay! finally! Next date to claim is Monday the 31st.

LOL! Congratulations!!

i reapplied for EB, claimed a bunch of retro weeks last wednesday, called in to my bank, heard that the amount equaling two wks plus $50 was deposited and in the process of clearing tonite. so far, so good. i checked AWI account online and got a remaining balance of over $800, saying claim again 5/17...last tuesday! i tried to claim again tonite but no weeks were available. wonder what happened??

surfer wrote:i reapplied for EB, claimed a bunch of retro weeks last wednesday, called in to my bank, heard that the amount equaling two wks plus $50 was deposited and in the process of clearing tonite. so far, so good. i checked AWI account online and got a remaining balance of over $800, saying claim again 5/17...last tuesday! i tried to claim again tonite but no weeks were available. wonder what happened??

Are you in Florida or have you moved out of state? People who are not living in an EB state get 2 weeks plus $25 per week for the 2 weeks even though a credit balance still shows on their account. I know, I'm one of them and have a nice credit I can't touch because where I live is not an EB state. If you're in Florida, you might want to talk to somebody - they may have you coded wrong and that could be causing the problem. Good luck!

Evelyn

The same thing happened to me. One week came thru today in my bank..my online acount says to claim remainder of funds (don't have xact amount written here) by Wednesday May 18 2010!. (This is in FLA)

connorsgp wrote:if congress extends eligibility till dec 31 does that mean EB will extend as well?

Hi connors! No, even if Congress extends the EB 100% funding til Dec 31, the Florida legislature voted down the amendment that was proposed to allow for automatic extensions based on the action of Congress. See the "Senate bills" or the EB eligibility threads for the discussion about that; the legislature voted that down in the last week of session in the last week of April. Then they won't be in session til next year! Crist may call an emergency session, but it won't be about EB, and any emergency session has to deal with only the announced issues for it.

The only focus for any possible new help is, unfortunately, Congress and possible new tiers, but there isn't even a bill containing any such provisions right now. And remember to vote out everyone in the Florida legislature who voted that amendment down in November! (The links were posted in the Florida bill discussion.)

SaraJ wrote:

Michael55 wrote:If I receive ALL (99 weeks) & go through ALL available TIERS - - WITHOUT having received ANY $$ from Florida's "EB" - - then, when My Tier 4 expires, I will NOT be eligible for Florida's EB. Is that correct?

Hi Michael - If you've received 99 weeks, then you have already received 20 weeks of EB. All the tiers + the 26 weeks of regular unemployment = 79 weeks + EB (20 weeks) = 99 weeks.

Along the same line, I collected a total of 99 weeks (unemployed since June 2008) through all of the various Tiers, ending March 2010. I was shorted 7 weeks of EB back in November 2009 and just received forms in the mail from AWI that I MAY be eligible for EB.

Is 99 weeks still the max allowable or should I go for filing a new EB claim? Thanks to all of you for helping us through this!

Montanakat wrote:

Along the same line, I collected a total of 99 weeks (unemployed since June 2008) through all of the various Tiers, ending March 2010. I was shorted 7 weeks of EB back in November 2009 and just received forms in the mail from AWI that I MAY be eligible for EB.

Is 99 weeks still the max allowable or should I go for filing a new EB claim? Thanks to all of you for helping us through this!

99 weeks is the max anyone could get, but if you were shorted those weeks (EB subtracted from your Tier 3 or 4) then you probably do have those 7 weeks coming. If you collected benefits for a total of 99 weeks but still were shorted those weeks, the only way that could happen is if you did a little work during that time, so that your benefits got stretched out for the extra weeks. That's what I did through most of this, worked here and there on little web projects, not enough to live on, but enough to fill in at least a few of those waiting weeks we had to go through.

I.e., the maximum is 99 FULL weeks. If you were paid partial weeks because you reported some income, those benefits could stretch out to longer than 99 weeks. And if you got a letter, chances are that you ARE eligible. You have nothing to lose by re-applying for EB. Even though you may have applied for EB originally, they require a re-certification to make sure you didn't have any new income in those weeks you exhausted the tiers. And even if you report some new income, that is simply subtracted from your EB and then $58 per week is added back. (If you do that, you may have to call them to make sure they don't have a flag on your account for review that could hold up payments.)

First I would like to say that I am very happy to have found this forum! This is my first post here!
I am still confused! The last week of my tier 4 ended today, one week before the cut off for EB that was signed last week! That means I can only get 1 week of EB. This means some will get 99 weeks but some will get 80 weeks like me! That does not seem fair but it is what it is!
My question is: If the Senate signs the extension when they return will that allow the Florida cutoff on EB to extend past June 4th also allowing the people who got screwed out of weeks, for being laid off later, to get their full 20 weeks? Thanks for your reply!

frogpatch wrote:First I would like to say that I am very happy to have found this forum! This is my first post here!
I am still confused! The last week of my tier 4 ended today, one week before the cut off for EB that was signed last week! That means I can only get 1 week of EB. This means some will get 99 weeks but some will get 80 weeks like me! That does not seem fair but it is what it is!
My question is: If the Senate signs the extension when they return will that allow the Florida cutoff on EB to extend past June 4th also allowing the people who got screwed out of weeks, for being laid off later, to get their full 20 weeks? Thanks for your reply!

Welcome Frogpatch, and thanks for joining! Yes, if and when an extension is approved you would be eligible for the remaining weeks. You would be able to claim retro weeks back to the 5th of June.

Unemployed In Orlando wrote:

frogpatch wrote:First I would like to say that I am very happy to have found this forum! This is my first post here!
I am still confused! The last week of my tier 4 ended today, one week before the cut off for EB that was signed last week! That means I can only get 1 week of EB. This means some will get 99 weeks but some will get 80 weeks like me! That does not seem fair but it is what it is!
My question is: If the Senate signs the extension when they return will that allow the Florida cutoff on EB to extend past June 4th also allowing the people who got screwed out of weeks, for being laid off later, to get their full 20 weeks? Thanks for your reply!

Welcome Frogpatch, and thanks for joining! Yes, if and when an extension is approved you would be eligible for the remaining weeks. You would be able to claim retro weeks back to the 5th of June.

I'm really sorry to have to contradict this, but I followed this new legislation really closely with the NELP rep as it went through the Florida legislative session and I replied to that same question in this thread here: https://unemployed-florida.forumotion.com/modcp.forum?mode=ip&p=4193&t=1&sid=ed4d3512926adc7ae677e9b68f3cff62

In theory, yes, you would be eligible for the remaining up to 20 weeks. The date the governor signed the bill has no relevance. The last date of your tiers is the earliest you could get the EB, but only up til June 5. I hope you can get at least that one week, I'm not sure if there are any tricky cutoffs in the exact dates for qualifying even for that, but I hope you've put in your application to get at least that.

But the reality of being eligible for remaining weeks does not coincide with theory. Please read the linked post and understand that your friendly Republican controlled legislature voted DOWN the option to allow for use of EB if Congress extended by the end of the year. They only voted for the amendment that allowed til June 5, and that's it! And since the Florida legislature doesn't go back into session til next year, except for a possible emergency session which will NOT deal with EB, it's a rather moot point if Congress extends EB 100% funding, since Florida won't be taking the money!

If you read back over this thread and the other two threads (sorry, this issue spanned the legislative process, eligibility concerns, and ongoing EB recipients), you'll find links to the vote on that last attempted amendment, and know who to vote OUT next fall if they are in your district.

I stand corrected, thanks Nancy. I didnt understand that the state itself has turned away the federal ok for EB

Unemployed In Orlando wrote:I stand corrected, thanks Nancy. I didnt understand that the state itself has turned away the federal ok for EB

Yes, trust this state to turn down free money from the feds whenever it can figure out a technicality that allows it to do so, especially when it comes to helping the unemployed.