How Does California's Trailing Spouse Rule Work for Unemployment Benefits

[Pimje]

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

My husband has accepted a position in the state of Arizona. I have been with my employer in California for just shy of 5 years full time. Can i claim trailing spouse? If so which state do i file in?

[comment/ator]

No matter where you move to, it will still be a California claim, since CA is where you had the wages that will be used to set up your claim. And when it comes to moving with a spouse, CA is a great place to be from. Most states do not acknowledge following a relocating non military spouse as a valid reason to quit a job, but CA does. I usually advise people to file the claim in the state they are moving to, as soon as they know their new address. This is the state you will be doing your work searches in, and any call in activities that are required of you. You will be filing an "interstate claim" through the AZ system, which will be dealt with by their interstate claims unit, which usually gets you slightly better service and ease of access than the ordinary in-state claim, once you have gotten in that first time and filed your claim. Make sure you have very detailed address and contact information about the places you have worked during the past two years.

[chyvan]

Seeing as how I live in AZ, I would NEVER file a claim here unless I had to.

As to the trailing spouse benefits, you have to be careful because some of the EDD workers will try to cheat you. I've seen plenty get denied as "quit to relocate." My recommendations are:

Be able to prove that your spouse got a job in AZ. Your say so is not enough.

If you don't have the same last name, be prepared to show a marriage license or birth certificate showing that you have a child together.

It also wouldn't hurt to do a google map of with the commute for your job to your new residence to prove that it was "beyond reasonable commuting distance."

Tell your employer in your letter of resignation exactly why you are quitting. If you say, "I loved working here, but my life is going in a different direction. . . ," the UI people are within their rights to say that the reason you quit your job at the time you quit had nothing to do with your move or you'd have said that in your letter.

Be able to prove via a provable method (email or text message) and not just a verbal conversation that you asked to be transferred to an AZ location or allowed telecommute. Some times you know it's impossible, but people have been denied because they "didn't try to preserve the employment," and it can happen because you did nothing or because you can't prove the attempt.

Do NOT quit early to pack. Since your spouse got the new job, you make him do that. Quitting to "pack," is NOT good cause.

In a perfect situation, you want to work right up until the last minute, and when you leave work, you want people to see you leaving work in a U-Haul.

You are NOT able and available for work while you are in transit, so don't be cute and say that you are when you spent a day driving to AZ and then another day unpacking. If you happen to be in a Mon to Friday profession, it is permissible to leave late on Friday evening and ready to look for work first thing Monday morning at 8:00 am.

[comment/ator]

This is not true. The U.I. people in any state are NOT going to try to "cheat you out of your benefits." There is absolutely no benefit to them, one way or another whether you are approved or denied. They get paid exactly the same whether you are approved or not, and many take pride in fairly administering the law, or are ready to approve everybody. No, they are not "out to get you so you'd better do it my way," as some would have us think.

There is only one good piece of advice here. And that is, do not quit your job early to pack and then tell the unemployment unit that you "quit to pack." You tell them that you quit to relocate with your spouse. The claim will not be taken by the regular claims unit of the state of AZ. It will be taken by the interstate claims unit and its approval or denial will be governed by the law and regulations of the state where the claims money is coming from, which is California.

Only a true nutcase of a claims worker would ask you to provide this much documentation about a quit to relocate with spouse claim from California, by California law, refusing to accept the information based on the claimant's testimony. It is very doubtful they'd have this much time to spend on it.

Be able to prove that your spouse got a job in AZ. Your say so is not enough.

If you don't have the same last name, be prepared to show a marriage license or birth certificate showing that you have a child together.

It also wouldn't hurt to do a google map of with the commute for your job to your new residence to prove that it was "beyond reasonable commuting distance."

I am simply astonished by this. Really?REALLY???


"Do NOT quit early to pack. Since your spouse got the new job, you make him do that. Quitting to "pack," is NOT good cause.

In a perfect situation, you want to work right up until the last minute, and when you leave work, you want people to see you leaving work in a U-Haul.

You are NOT able and available for work while you are in transit, so don't be cute and say that you are when you spent a day driving to AZ and then another day unpacking. If you happen to be in a Mon to Friday profession, it is permissible to leave late on Friday evening and ready to look for work first thing Monday morning at 8:00 am. "

You really think the claimant is going to have to subpoena her neighbors to testify that she left work and then packed a U-Haul and moved away on Friday night? To show the U.I. workers maps that demonstrate that the new location of the job (that one she has testimony from his company to show he got) is beyond reasonable commuting distance? To show proof that these people really have a child together, complete with birth certificates? Really?

OP, give appropriate notice to your employer. Relocate. File your claim as soon as you have a permanent address in Arizona. Hope it works out for you without DNA testing and a major court case. I think it will.

[cbg]

* fetches popcorn

[free9man]

oooo...popcorn!

[comment/ator]

Thanks for reminding me. Dropping out here.

[chyvan]

The U.I. people in any state are NOT going to try to "cheat you out of your benefits."

The same way that jk thinks that employers don't put up much of a fight against UI claims, and you disagree. I read about claims getting denied that shouldn't have and having to deal with things on appeal. There are UI workers that deny claims for the wrong reasons and to me, they aren't even close calls.

I just did a "quit to get married" in CA. The claimant was denied as a "quit to relocate." She swore she told her story to the EDD worker so there was no doubt as to what happened. You can tell the claimant that she won't have a problem, but when you're at the hearing, you can't leave anything to chance because you're not going to get another chance to present the evidence.

Did she have to have a bullet proof case at the hearing? Maybe not, but she'd already lost once, and she took it seriously.

[cbg]

You really need to stop insinuating that you are a paid consultant hired to adjudicate claims instead of a know-it-all who once found a hat and now thinks he's a cowboy. OP, in other posts chyvan has acknowledged publicly that he has no qualifications to be telling people how to submit their claims. Please keep that in mind.

[chyvan]

You really need to stop insinuating that you are a paid consultant hired to adjudicate claims instead of a know-it-all who once found a hat and now thinks he's a cowboy.

Then find one thread where a claimant didn't get benefits because of my bad advice.