Florida Unemployment Benefits

Many who are receiving unemployment benefits often ask whether unemployment benefits will negatively affect a persons credit score. The good news is that your unemployment status has no effect on your credit score. The reason unemployment can sometimes reduce a persons FICO score is because with income lost or reduced, it is very likley that unsecured debt like credit cards, or personal lines of credit can take a back burner to the mortgage or car loans. If these unsecured debt products are paid late you will certainly see some negative reporting on your credit giving you the dreaded mark of bad credit. Worse bad credit can affect your job hunt if a potential employer used credit report data to determine whom to hire. So to ensure your credit stays healthy during your unemployment try the following tips.

• Pay at least the minimum payment on all of your debt. It is critical to keep your payments current.
• Use the extra cashflow from paying the minimum to pad your emergency savings. If you have an emergency while on umeployment you can better pay cash vs digging deeper in debt.
• When you do find a new job start a debt snowball keeping all debt current, then paying the smallest debt off first as fast as possible. Then move on to the next largest until you are debt free.

“I own a business & am closing the business due to lack of business, hence no income.
Can I file for unemployment after closing the business?”

To be eligible for Florida unemployment benefits, you must become unemployed through no fault of your own. This usually means you were laid off or the place you worked went out of business or filed bankruptcy due to mounting debt. If you own the business and decide to close the business down you likley are not eligible for unemployment benefits because you essentially quit your job. The key determinig factor is control. When you work for a company and are laid off you do not have control over the loss of your job. If you quit your job you generally are not eligible for unemployment.

If you are actively seeking a new job using the Florida Craigslist can be one of your best resources. To start visit http://geo.craigslist.org/iso/us/fl which is the main Craigslist Florida page. From this page you can choose a location that is closest to your major city. Once you’ve chosen a Craigslist location say Orlando for example you’ll see a large column listing all sorts of types of jobs. Now you could select a category and start looking at all the available jobs. If you want a faster more targeted approach you could just select the jobs link on top. Then click Continue to job postings and you’ll see all the available jobs listed. Now in the search for field type a keyword and hit search. You’ll get a return of any job that matches your keyword in that location. This works well because of a job is mis-categorized you still catch the listing.

Florida provides help to residents who are receiving Florida unemployment benefits to assist in finding a new job. You can visit your local Florida One Stop office or visit the employflorida website at www.employflorida.com. Other job hunting sites you’ll want to visit are www.linkedin.com www.monster.com www.hotjobs.com and the Florida Craigslist Jobs section.

After you file a claim for unemployment benefits online or over the phone you should receive further instructions and a confirmation that your unemployment claim has been received. You should receive your first unemployment check about 4 weeks after applying for your Florida unemployment benefits. One requirement is that you re-certify that you are eligible and still need to receive unemployment benefits by using the FLUID claim your weeks section of the online website or certifying your weeks over the phone and confirm that you are actively seeking new employment.

 To file a unemployment claim in Florida you can visit the online website called floridajobs at www.floridajobs.org or you can call the Florida Unemployment department or visit a local unemployment office or one stop to file your unemployment claim in person.  To file your unemployment claim over the telephone simply call the phone number 1-800-204-2418.  Because the phone number is often busy it is recommended not to apply for unemployment by telephone on Mondays and Tuesdays and be patient or try using the FLUID online website to apply for your benefits.  You can reach Florida unemployment by phone until 7:00pm Monday – Friday and until 4:00pm on Saturdays.

In order to be eligible for Florida unemployment benefits you must meet the following criteria.  First you must have lost your employment through no fault of your own.  This means that quitting a job is generally not going to make you eligible for unemployment benefits.  There are extreme exceptions to that in cases of a hostile work environment however.  In addition to becoming unemployed through no fault of your own, you must be willing and able to accept new work and be actively looking for new employment.  Lastly to be qualified for unemployment benefits you must have earned sufficient funds from your previous employment during the previous few quarters to justify the ability to claim unemployment benefits.