How does cashing out a pension or 401k effect your eligibility for unemployment benefits?

I live in Ohio and the company I work for is on a firing binge because of an unattainable sales quota. After working for 8 years I have a nice 401k and pension that will be available for rollover or cash out. If those are cashed out and used for living expenses if necessary will this effect being able to receive unemployment benefits and do you have to disclose to the unemployment office that you have or are planning to cash these out?


Hi,

It absolutely will have an effect on your unemployment benefits.

So here is the resource at the USDOL I use to answer questions about what deductible income is .. with regard to unemployment benefits.

Click the current year, then go to "Nonmonetary" The discussion about "what is considered deductible income start on page 34, but your issue is addressed specifically in Table 5-16 on page 39.

The problems:

Your 401k is from your base period employer .. although Ohio does consider employee contributions .. I have no idea what brilliantly complicated formula they may use. I also notice that there is no X in the box which would exclude Non base period employers .. that would be a concern for retirees who went back to work after retiring with a pension from another job .. say retired military.

Chris