PA UC weekly benefit amount letter shows multiple employers - only claiming one job?
Just submitted my PA unemployment claim yesterday and got the financial determination letter showing my weekly benefit amount (WBA) of $518. Super quick turnaround! But I'm confused - the letter lists all three places I worked in the past 18 months, but I'm only filing for unemployment from my most recent job where I was laid off last week. The other jobs I left voluntarily months ago. Will this affect my actual weekly payment amount? Do I need to contact UC to clarify I'm only claiming benefits based on my last employer? The letter doesn't explain if the WBA calculation included all employers or just my most recent one.
16 comments
Dylan Mitchell
The financial determination letter shows ALL qualifying wages from your base year period, which is used to calculate your WBA. The $518 amount listed is what you'll receive weekly if your claim is approved. Your eligibility is determined separately from this calculation, based on your separation reason from each employer. Since you voluntarily quit the earlier jobs, they shouldn't affect your eligibility as long as your most recent job separation was through no fault of your own (layoff). No need to contact them about this specifically.
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Sofia Gutierrez
•Yep what they said! I panicked about the same thing last year lol
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Dmitry Petrov
The determination letter ALWAYS shows all ur employers from the base period. It doesn't mean ur claiming benefits from all of them!! As long as u were laid off from ur last job u should be ok. They just use all those wages to calculate how much u get. Its confusing and the PA UC system is a mess but thats normal
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StarSurfer
•My determination letter only showed one employer even though I had three in the last 18 months. Not sure why they would be different?
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Ava Martinez
You might want to double-check that the separation reason is correct for your most recent employer. If they have you listed as a voluntary quit when it was actually a layoff, you could get denied even if your monetary determination looks good. I spent 6 weeks fighting with PA UC because they had the wrong separation code. When you file your biweekly claims, make sure your answers about why you're not working match what you initially reported.
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Fatima Al-Maktoum
•That's a really good point! I'm going to check my dashboard to see if it shows my separation reason. I definitely don't want any issues with that.
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Miguel Castro
The financial determination is just the FIRST step in a two-part process. It's calculating your potential benefit amount based on all eligible wages in your base year. The second part is the eligibility determination which considers your reason for separation from each employer. As long as your most recent employer was a layoff, you should be fine. However, if you're worried about this and want to verify everything is correct, good luck trying to reach someone at PA UC by phone! I was in a similar situation and spent days trying to get through. I finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me connected to an actual agent in under an hour. They have a video demo showing how it works: https://youtu.be/CEPETxZWG3KiHrg2 The agent confirmed everything was correct for me and I started receiving payments the following week. Might be worth checking if you're concerned about potential issues.
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Fatima Al-Maktoum
•Thank you for the detailed explanation! That really helps me understand the two-part process better. I might try Claimyr if I start seeing any issues with my claim status. For now I'll wait and see if my claim processes normally.
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Zainab Abdulrahman
ur fine dont worry about it. the amount on the letter is what youll get every week as long as u qualify. i went thru this 2 months ago and had like 5 jobs listed but only got laid off from the last one. still got approved no problem
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Fatima Al-Maktoum
•That's reassuring to hear you went through something similar and it worked out! Thanks for sharing your experience.
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StarSurfer
Make sure you do your work search activities once you start getting paid! My niece forgot to log her work searches and they stopped her payments and she had to appeal, what a nightmare.
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Dylan Mitchell
•This is important advice, but not directly related to the original question about the financial determination. Just to clarify for the OP - PA requires you to complete and document at least 2 work search activities per week and 1 job application per week once you start claiming benefits.
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Dmitry Petrov
BTW did u get ur pin in the mail yet? U need that to file ur biweekly claims! If it doesnt come in 7-10 days call them to get a new one
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Fatima Al-Maktoum
•No PIN yet! The letter came really fast but nothing else. Thanks for reminding me - I'll keep an eye out for it.
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Ava Martinez
One more thing - make sure you're checking your dashboard regularly for any notices about "open issues" that could delay payment. Sometimes they need additional information even if your financial determination looks good. The UC system isn't great about notifying you when there's a problem.
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Fatima Al-Maktoum
•Will do - I just set up notifications on my account to be safe. Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly from here!
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