Lawyer's Unemployment Benefits Yanked Over $1 A Day From Blog from Forbes reports that a woman who was earning $405 a week in unemployment benefits had those benefits pulled by New York State after she began earning about a $1 per day with Google AdSense on her blog.
Forbes wrote:
Does writing a blog constitute work? That appears to be the position of the New York State Department of Labor, which recently declared a laid-off attorney ineligible for unemployment benefits because she was bringing in $1.30 a day from blog ads.
The NY DOL felt that the check from Google, which is filed as a 1099, made her someone who was self-employed. So they stopped her unemployment benefits even though she earned a total of $238.75 with Google to date. The DOL will look into this specific case, but has decided to hold payments until they have a chance to do so. Meanwhile, this woman is in very bad financial shape.
WebmasterWorld moderator said:
It would make a lot more sense to simply deduct the amount from their next unemployment check.If unemployment insurance completely penalizes people for miscellaneous small earnings, instead of making common-sense adjustments, that would create a strong disincentive for benefit recipients to do anything productive.
When did Government make any sense?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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rustybrick in Google AdSense at October 12, 2009 8:56 AM
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The point of this law is it maintains the status quo. The wealthy, having no need of benefits, can develop what skills they have and enrich themselves further. The poor, no matter what potential they might have, are forever denied the chance to develop to the point where they might become self-supporting. This suits the wealthy just fine, but works against the interests of the community as a whole as many of those whose endeavours might develop to the point where they benefit their community are denied the opportunity to work. The law itself is anti-social.
BB
Posted by 'Big' Bill Kruse at October 13, 2009 03:50