Forced retirement and unemployment rights in Virginia

by Richard
(Virginia Unemployment Benefits)

I fear that I will be forced to take retirement. I am 65 but receive only a small pension from an employer of 30 years ago and have not signed up for social security. So, would I be eligible for unemployment in Virginia if I wish to seek further employment even though I was forced to retire from my present company. My company only provides a 401K and no other retirement.






Hi Richard,

Compulsory retirements are treated like a voluntary quit, however if you take a look at the common areas DOLETA mentions in Table 5-2, good cause for quitting may be provided for provisionally or simply with a law being interpreted by a state to allow for good cause .. or it's just left blank .. which wouldn't be a good sign.

This is a separate issue from the deductions applied to unemployment benefits due to payments received from a retirement account, found in table 5-16 which is worth a look/see as well about any impact of retirement payments from both a base period and a non-base period employer.

So, we can see in table 5-2 linked to above, that VA interprets their UI law in the case of a VQ due to compulsory retirement.

To be safe, you need to find out how they have interpreted that type of quit .. because I do not assume that means with good cause as for years I dealt with a client that was an airline that appealed every single forced retirement of pilots as a voluntary quit. (might have had something to do with a another law limiting age of pilots due to safety or something, just don't know for sure.)

I apologize, but I don't have the time to read all decisions under every issue I think would be relative to your situation and I didn't see the problem specified in the index.

But, I would suggest starting with "able and available" and "voluntary quit" as those seem the most likely for a decision to be interpreted favorably.

This is because I know a forced retirement is actually a quit you have no choice about and holds true in some professions and some companies.

However, it also doesn't necessarily exclude you from being able and available for work which is just a conditional requirement to collect .. And since you are being forced out of suitable work who is the state to say what is now the only suitable work for you.

I would greatly appreciate you sharing any decision you find and be happy to discuss the merits or your case against the precedent.