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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Posts
    10

    Default Can You Apply for Unemployment Benefits Several Years After You're Fired

    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: NJ

    I was laid-off due to business restructuring in Fall 2009 by a private held small company. At the time I didn't know that I could be eligible for Unemployment benefits and never applied for them, but kept looking hard for a job. I remained unemployed for about a year and my annual salary before lay off was close to six digit.

    I recently realized that I could have gotten unemployment amount if I had applied for it, which could have been substantial as it considers the annual salary.
    I've been trying calling NJ unemployment inquiries # at 201 601 4100 for days but the line is always busy for hours.
    Is there any way I could still obtain that unemployment amount after these many years?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Posts
    8,006

    Default Re: Can I Unemployment Benefits from New Jersey After Years After Lay-Off

    I will defer to others more experienced but based on my understanding, that ship sailed a LONG time ago.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Posts
    38,867

    Default Re: Can I Unemployment Benefits from New Jersey After Years After Lay-Off

    No. You cannot apply for retroactive benefits.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    1,360

    Default Re: Can You Apply for Unemployment Benefits Several Years After You're Fired

    Quote Quoting jmka
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    I remained unemployed for about a year
    This make me sick. You probably threw away about $31,200 by being ignorant. I hope you NEVER make that mistake again.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Posts
    312

    Default Re: Can You Apply for Unemployment Benefits Several Years After You're Fired

    That money's purpose is to help alleviate the many strains a job search can have on someone's life. What you're asking, essentially, is if you can get paid for previously having to endure that strain, which is........I can't even choose a word to describe this. Ignorant?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Posts
    1,142

    Default Re: Can You Apply for Unemployment Benefits Several Years After You're Fired

    ANY time a claim is filed, the claim is monetarily set up based upon the first four of the last completed quarters at the date it is filed. It only goes back roughly a year and a half to pick up covered wages. After more than a year, you will not likely have covered wages to set up a claim, even if you had worked for years and years before that. Unlike Social Security, the quarters roll forward in unemployment and each time the quarter changes, the time passes, you lose some of those wages from the old quarters and move on into the new quarters they look at.

    I really hate that you did this, it's a sad shame. even if you are not in desperate straits, you still don't need to leave this money, to which you WERE legally entitled (back at the time) lying there. That's just dumb and is based on misconceptions that many people have about unemployment. And it does NOT come out the taxpayers pockets, it is collected from the employer and is used because they put you out of work through no fault of your own.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Posts
    8,238

    Default Re: Can You Apply for Unemployment Benefits Several Years After You're Fired

    Quote Quoting comment/ator
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    And it does NOT come out the taxpayers pockets, it is collected from the employer and is used because they put you out of work through no fault of your own.
    Well, technically it does come out of taxpayer’s pockets because unemployment benefits are paid from unemployment taxes levied on the employer. Businesses are taxpayers, too. However, it is true that the tax is levied only on employers and it is those taxes that fund the unemployment compensation system. To the extent you mean it does not get funded from income taxes paid by individuals, that of course is correct. Your fellow workers are not (at least not directly) paying for this.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Posts
    1,142

    Default Re: Can You Apply for Unemployment Benefits Several Years After You're Fired

    The money that comes to administer the program from that state's central government and from the Federal government is taxpayer money. But the employer is taxed based on the number of employees they have and are taxed according to the amount of laying off and closing down they do, so this is pretty fair in my opinion. We elected to set up this program back in the thirties and it has worked pretty well for a long time.

    But so many people have the misconception (including one particular financial guru who gives financial advice on many radio stations!) that unemployment insurance is based on need, is a low life, low down poverty program, and that a fine upstanding responsible citizen should reject your "stinkin' unemployment benefits!" when laid off through no fault of their own. I always try to emphasize to people that in the first place, it's not needs based, and in the second place, you do not save the system or the taxpayers of your state or nation one thin dime if you're "too proud" to sign up for yours any more than if you were too proud to use the company's health insurance and insisted on paying for your own medical care without it.

    It doesn't last long enough to create a "welfare life style" as some legislators claim, and it is VERY heavily monitored due to the criticism of any of these programs regarding "welfare queens" and the people who are defrauding the system. Yes, a millionaire can qualify, but that's legitimate. And there's certainly no reason for anyone who is legitimately eligible to refuse to pick up that amount of money they legitimately qualify for. I used to, as part of a job speak to people who were losing their employment due to business closures and downsizings, and this was one thing I would have to really work on with a lot of people who had been proud contributors for many years. Yes, you do need to sign up for unemployment, right now, before you desperately need it or figure out that you aren't going to find another job immediately. If you do not do so, you will lose your eligibility for it as the quarters go by.

    It's not stealing from the government, and if you don't use it, you're not "saving it for someone else who needs it worse." Okay, I'll get off my soap box now!

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Posts
    17

    Default Re: Can You Apply for Unemployment Benefits Several Years After You're Fired

    And - in 2009, because of the recession, it was possible to collect as much as 99 weeks of Emergency Unemployment Compensation and Extended Benefits under an original claim. And, if one worked while collecting benefits and had begun EUC before their bye, they were eligible for another new claim, to which would be attached another set of EUC benefits. Some people, during those years, collected EUC on multiple claims - exhaust claim 1, begin EUC; requalify for 2nd claim at bye, exhaust that, exhaust claim 1 EUC, begin claim 2 EUC - and possibly even collect extended benefits. Some people collected 158 weeks of benefits and more.

    Not filing at that time was a huge error. I recall many people felt guilty about being on the "dole" and delayed filing out of principle - until they lost everything and were forced to file. Late filing cost wages in a base period - and, in some cases, any chance at EUC or Extended Benefits.

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