High school and college students whose summer jobs fell through because of the pandemic may qualify for jobless benefits under a special federal program. But getting the funds is harder in some states than in others.
Traditional unemployment insurance — a joint federal-state program funded by taxes on employers — usually leaves out students. But young people may be eligible for financial relief through the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program if they are out of work because of the coronavirus, employment experts say.
Many students are unaware that they may qualify for the special benefits if they can’t work or have lost a job because of the outbreak, said Jennifer Mishory, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a public policy research group.
Unemployment insurance partly replaces wages for workers who lose jobs through no fault of their own. The federal government sets basic guidelines, but states administer the programs and set many of their own rules, which often exclude students.
Teenagers who lose their jobs often haven’t worked long enough or earned enough money to meet minimum requirements for collecting traditional jobless benefits, Ms. Mishory said. About 20 states generally disqualify part-time workers, whether or not they are students, and about half of the states have restrictions specifically aimed at students.
The rules are different, however, under the federally funded Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which temporarily expanded eligibility to people who typically don’t qualify for regular jobless benefits — like self-employed people, those with limited work histories and part-time workers.
The program “created a whole new set of eligibility across all states,” said David Pryzbylski, a labor and employment lawyer at Barnes & Thornburg in Indianapolis.
And in April, the federal Labor Department clarified that full-time students working part time may qualify for jobless benefits during the pandemic if they meet certain requirements.
Many of the requirements refer to having a coronavirus diagnosis or caring for a family member who falls ill, but people may also qualify if their workplace closed because of the pandemic or if they were scheduled to start work but can’t as a “direct” result of the virus.
So a student who had a job lined up for the summer — whether as a lifeguard at a pool that didn’t open or as a counselor at a summer camp that closed because of the virus — may be eligible for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, Mr. Pryzbylski said.
“Presumably if they had a bona fide offer of employment that was rescinded because of Covid-19, they should be able to qualify,” Michele Evermore, senior researcher and policy analyst with the National Employment Law Project, said in an email.
It’s unclear how many students have applied for the special assistance. The Labor Department doesn’t track Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims by age, a spokesman said.
The payments could be a boon to students struggling to find work. More than a quarter of workers ages 16 to 24 were probably without work in May, the Pew Research Center reported.
States administer the pandemic program, however, and some are more assertive than others in making people aware of the expanded eligibility. Some states, including California, Maine and Alaska, mention on their labor department websites that students may be eligible for payments under the program. Other states don’t specifically address the status of students, which may lead students to conclude they do not qualify.
And at least one state is barring students from the special coverage. Minnesota has relied on a 1939 law that prohibits high school students from getting benefits to bar them from collecting under the pandemic program as well, said Marcus Pope, vice president for Youthprise, a nonprofit youth advocacy organization in Minneapolis.
The ban has been a particular burden for low-income and minority students, who often work to support their families, Mr. Pope said.
Walter Cortina, a 17-year-old high school student in St. Paul, Minn., said he had worked for several years at a carwash, part time during the school year and full time in the summer. He used the money to help support his younger sister as well as his mother and aunt. When he lost his job in March because of the pandemic, he said, he was rejected for jobless benefits. He was eventually able to find a paid internship, but said others in his position might not be so lucky.
Some students in Minnesota were initially sent unemployment checks, only to be told that they had been approved in error and must return the money. Cole Stevens, 18, who graduated this spring, said he had applied repeatedly for benefits after the coffee shop where he worked in Bloomington, Minn., cut his hours and then shut down during the pandemic. He eventually received a lump sum of about $3,700, and spent about half to help his father pay bills and living expenses.
“I really didn’t spend it on anything frivolous,” he said.
Then, a letter arrived from the state, telling him he had to return the money. He is appealing the finding. “I think it’s a gross injustice,” he said. He has since found work cleaning and disinfecting buildings, he said, but his hours vary.
The commissioner of Minnesota’s employment department said in a recent blog post that he and the state’s governor, Tim Walz, supported a change in the law that would allow students to qualify temporarily, and were working with state legislators on a fix.
Some students have successfully claimed the benefits. Don La Fronz, an investment adviser in New York, said his college-age son had successfully filed for benefits after a summer job fell through because of the virus, and is receiving more than $700 a week. Some of his son’s friends in similar situations have claimed benefits as well, Mr. La Fronz said.
Here are some questions and answers about unemployment insurance for students:
How do I apply for unemployment insurance benefits if I’m a student?
You can typically apply online, through your state’s unemployment office. Check the website of your state’s labor or employment department for details. Each state has its own process; some may require separate applications for regular benefits and pandemic relief benefits.
What if I’m unsure if I qualify for the expanded jobless benefits?
There’s no harm in applying for benefits to see if you qualify, as long as you are truthful on the application, said Victorine Froehlich, a lawyer who participates in the New York State Bar Association’s volunteer unemployment insurance initiative. The program offers free help to New Yorkers seeking jobless benefits during the pandemic.
(Students who are ineligible for traditional jobless benefits in New York — like college students who work for the school they attend — may be covered under the pandemic program, according to the state labor department. Similarly, the department said, students who were scheduled to start jobs over the summer break but lost the work as a direct result of the virus “should apply” for the special pandemic benefits.)
You can include an offer letter from your employer, as well as a subsequent letter rescinding the offer, to document your job loss. If the offer was oral — say, you had a seasonal job last summer and understood that you’d be rehired this year — you may ask the employer for a letter to document your circumstances. Most employers are willing to help workers who were affected by virus-related closings, Mr. Pryzbylski said.
“You probably don’t want to file unless you had a concrete job offer,” he said. Losing a paid internship — which college students often rely on — could qualify as well, he said.
Keep in mind, however, that qualifying may be tricky if your job loss isn’t a “direct” result of the virus. If the job loss is considered to have occurred because of the broader economic downturn, you could be found ineligible, depending on the state’s interpretation of the situation, Ms. Mishory said. “It’s complicated.”
How much money could a student collect in jobless benefits?
The amount depends on your circumstances and the state where you claim benefits, but it could be significant. The expanded federal unemployment program pays a weekly benefit of $600 on top of a partial wage replacement of at least half of a state’s average weekly unemployment benefit — about $190 a week nationally, according to the National Employment Law Project, although it varies widely by state. That could mean payments of almost $800 a week.
The benefits can be retroactive to Jan. 27 or to the date the job was expected to begin. The weekly $600 payments, however, apply only to weeks of unemployment from April 5 through late July, unless Congress passes legislation to extend them.
And while the pandemic benefits can run for up to 39 weeks, students can collect just for the period when they expected to be employed, Mr. Pryzbylski said. For example, if your job at a shuttered summer camp was to have run for eight weeks, that’s the amount of time you could claim.
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