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Georgia DOL makes online UI forms easier to understand
Unemployment claims continue for the second week to head down.
ATLANTA - Unemployment claims continue for the second week to head down. That’s good news, but still many are having trouble filing out those unemployment claims.
A FOX 5 viewer asked me why the Georgia Department of Labor didn’t create tutorials to help with the application process. Well they heard you! Two tutorials are out this week. One is for the PUA payments and the other for regular unemployment.
I’ve highlighted important changes for you. It’s all in the language. On the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance pages questions #4 and #8 are changed.
#4 – Claimants are reporting PUA payments as compensation. What this does is reduce your weekly benefit. The new question is they believe is clearer. Have you received unemployment insurance from another state or federal program other than PUA? Do not include PUA or the $600 FPUC money in your calculation.
#8 – Again, this is on the PUA page. Do not report social security benefit payments as income from retirement, pension or annuity. The social security benefit is not required here.
On the regular unemployment certification page (question #6), claimants are misunderstanding the job-ending query. The question is asking if your job ended because of lack of work. Most of the time the answer is yes, according to DOL.
Here are three other points Commissioner Mark Butler wants you to consider.
1. Wait to request payments until after you receive your confirmation that your claim is processed.
2. Do not file multiple claims. If you don’t hear back immediately, don’t file the same claim twice. This is what gums up your claim.
3. And, employers are not changing the dates on the weekly employer filed partial claim spreadsheet upload. Put the current date in there. If you don’t, your employees won’t get paid.
The hyperlinks above take you to the tutorial pages. Good luck.