(Oklahoma)
Live in Oklahoma and was laid off and started receiving benefits, but it wasn’t enough to pay bills and take care of myself. So, I moved back home with mom in another town and then my car broke down.
A month or so later, the old job calls me and tells me to come back to work. I let them know I had no car and I was now living in another town anyway.
They cut off my benefits when old employer said I had refused to work. Then a hearing was for the following month.
In the meantime, I started working another job and within a week I got injured on the job.
Now, I’m out of work with a hearing coming next week.
Do you think I’m gonna win?
Hi,
You know.. you only told me enough to come up with an answer I would call a guess .. And if I were still into asking questions that clarified a situation for me I’d ask if you’re currently able and available to work, if you are collecting workers compensation for the on the job injury, and what the issue(s) might be on this hearing notice you have for next week and which employer is involved as a party to the appeal.
But, my blind guess is no, you won’t win if the issue is refusing suitable work from the job you were laid off from.
1. A person collecting unemployment benefits should not refuse suitable work from the employer that laid them off if they want to protect their right to collect should the employer have to lay them off again anytime within the claims current benefit year dates. Primarily, because that’s usually the employer being charged for the benefits you’re receiving via a higher unemployment tax rate.
When laid off in the future, remember that a refusal of suitable work, even if it’s to go back to a job you were happy to be laid off from .. will be disqualifying and even I know this is a correct determination, no matter your extraneous bouts of bad luck might be.
And the disqualification determination explains to those denied, how one purges a disqaulification before they can requalify for benefits. (Usually, by returning to any covered employment and earning x times a weekly benefit before they unluckily suffer a new and eligible cause for losing even a new job).
2. I’ll give you this .. You were on your way to purging the disqualification with something even better than benefits .. a new job. But then you tell me you were injured. Yoo-hoo, that’s why employers have to pay for worker comp insurance .. in case you get injured ON THE JOB and need medical attention and/or compensation for any time a doctor requires you to be off of work ..
Of course an on the job injury doesn’t necessarily mean you are unemployed and not being able and available to work would disqualify you from collecting UI benefits .. even if you’re found eligible.
Car broke down? Hardly ever a good excuse for unemployment .. unless you were on your way to work when it happened and get fired for attendance. Then, you better have a tow bill or something to prove the incident was beyond your control .. or a cell phone record to prove you weren’t a no call/no show.