pension benifits

by gail
(Oak Park, CA usa)

Can you receive a pension at the same time as you are receiving unemployment benefits even if it's from the company that laid me off?





Hi Gail,

I'll start this with an explanation from the USDOL regarding "retirement payments as whether deductible from unemployment benefits.

"Retirement Payments—FUTA requires states to reduce the weekly benefit amount of any individual by the amount, allocated weekly, of any “....governmental or other pension, retirement or retired pay, annuity, or any other similar periodic payment which is based on the previous work of such individual...” This requirement applies only to payments made under a plan maintained or contributed to by a base-period or chargeable employer which affected eligibility for or increased the amount of the retirement pay. States are permitted to reduce benefits on less than a dollar-for-dollar basis by taking into account the contributions made by the worker to the plan in question. (This effectively means the FUTA requirement is limited to 100% employer-financed pensions.) Also, the requirement applies only to those payments made on a periodic (as opposed to lump-sum) basis. As a result, the states may choose from a variety of options in creating a retirement pay provision. In
2008, FUTA was amended to prohibit reductions for pensions, retirement or retired pay, annuity, or other similar payments which are not includible in the gross income of the individual because it was a part of a rollover distribution."


This information precedes Table 5-16 of the "Nonmonetary Eligibility chartbook which provides some additional information about other types of deductible income as well, for all states.

But, to be thorough and specific about California unemployment and the various kinds of pension payments one might be receiving .. I also suggest you take a look at what CA provides in TPU 460.55 of the determination guide Pensions or Retirement pay and California unemployment benefits.

In neither place did I find mention that California will consider employee contributions when calculating the the pension payment amount for the possibility of reducing the amount of the deduction from the WBA of unemployment. If you learn differently .. let everyone know by updating this question with a comment.

By the way .. I don't believe I mentioned at the beginning that I had already assumed that at least a portion of the pension payments would be deductible .. because it's from the employer that laid you off .. which would most likely make the pension coming from a base-period employer .. I was just hoping that CA considered employee contributions .. to reduce the amount of the deduction.

Chris