Damned if You Do…

Being unemployed can be quite confusing and stressful.

To collect our unemployment checks, we are expected to look for work, but not actually do work. This leaves us between a rock and a hard place.

During my jobless stretch, I’ve done some freelance writing. As long as I deduct the days I’ve worked from my weekly claim, I can collect unemployment checks.

However, something came up last week that could put my unemployment benefits in jeopardy. Since I’ve been out of work for over a year, I had to resubmit my claim.

Applying over the phone for unemployment benefits is always confusing, but I also spoke to a New York State Department of Labor employee. I admitted I have done some freelance work in the past year. The state probably has the 1099 tax form on file, so it would know about it anyway.

The gentleman said he had to send a letter to the company I freelance for on an occasional basis to make sure I was not a full-time staffer or a contractor.

But now I’m worried. Can the state cut off my jobless benefits because I do some occasional freelance writing, which, really, doesn’t pay much?

No one can live on unemployment checks alone. We need some extra cash. But I cannot live on freelance gigs either. In one year, I’ve made less than $3,000.

Plus, HR officers—the people who seemingly control our lives—don’t like to see “gaps” in our employment history. (You would think the fact we were laid off during the worst recession since the Great Depression would explain those gaps, but they don’t seem to comprehend that reality.)

Therefore, I’ve been freelancing to keep up my skills and show some current writing samples.

Yet if the state threatens to stop my unemployment benefits, I’ll have to stop freelancing and how will I explain the “gap” between jobs? I’ll appear to be what most HR people think unemployed people are: lazy bums who don’t want to work.

Believe me, nothing would make me happier than to get a full-time job and get off unemployment. Who needs this agita?

It’s quite a Catch 22. Damned if you do work, damned if you don’t.

My sister was in the same situation. She had to reapply for her benefits in Pennsylvania, but she also works part-time. Because she is a full-time student and needs to work 500 hours in the food service industry for her culinary arts degree, she can still collect unemployment.

Now I have to sweat out a determination by the State of New York Labor Department that could cut off my unemployment benefits with no job offer in sight.

Have any of you out there in unemployed land been confronted by the same situation? What happened? What should I do?