Can I get an extension on my unemployment benefits in Texas TWC?

That's honestly what I was afraid to hear but better to know now than to find out when I'm down to my last payment. So there's literally no federal extension program running either?

No federal extended benefits program is running anywhere right now, those were tied to pandemic-era situations and they've been gone for a while. The 26 weeks is what you've got.

Yeah the threshold thing is real, it's 6.5 percent for the Texas rate and we're nowhere near that currently so extended benefits are off the table.

How did the agent figure out the maximum benefit amount, is that just 26 times my weekly payment?

Not exactly, it's whichever is smaller between 26 times your weekly amount or 27 percent of everything you earned in your base period. So depending on your wages it could be less than the full 26 weeks worth.

That's a good point, I was surprised when I found out mine was capped lower than I expected because of the 27 percent calculation.

Wait so the 52 weeks and the 26 weeks are separate things? I thought they were the same.

Totally different. The 52-week benefit year is the calendar window, the 26 weeks is the maximum number of weeks you can actually get paid. If your benefit year expires before you use all 26 weeks, the unused ones are just gone. You'd have to file a new claim.

This confused me so much when I first started, I thought 26 weeks meant I had 26 weeks from when I filed. The 52-week thing changes the whole picture.

That's actually really useful to know, so if I took a contract gig and it ended I could file again?

Potentially yes, though you'd need to meet TWC's earnings requirements to qualify. The base period would be calculated from the new claim date so the recent work would count toward it.

You still have to meet all the usual qualification requirements though, it's not automatic just because you worked a little. Worth filing and seeing what TWC determines.

Ugh week 19 and I'm only on week 14. Neither of us has great odds if the job market doesn't shift. Are you in a specific industry where hiring is especially slow?

Tech adjacent, which has been rough for about two years now honestly. I've been applying outside my field too but overqualified rejections are real.

The overqualified problem is brutal. I dealt with it too and eventually just left that off my resume for lower-tier jobs. Got an interview within a week.

Mine has all of that but I've been pretty loose about the contact info for online applications, mostly just the company name and job title. Is that going to be a problem?

Add the URL of the job posting if you have it and the method of application, that usually satisfies what TWC is looking for. The more detail the better since you can't go back and reconstruct it perfectly after the fact.

My work search log got audited in my second claim and they specifically wanted the job title, company, application method and date. I had all of it and passed but it was nerve-wracking.

Five a week in Harris County nearly killed me when I was between jobs last year. That's 10 activities every payment request period.

It is a lot and the activities have to be real, documented attempts, not just browsing job boards. Submitting an application, attending a job fair, completing a skills assessment, those all count.

I'm in Travis County so it's five for me too. I've been managing but some weeks it's definitely a scramble to hit all five.

I've seen people on other forums say you can apply for an extension and I think they're confusing Texas with how some other states handled things during the pandemic. Those were extraordinary measures that no longer exist.

Exactly, there's a lot of outdated information floating around from 2020 and 2021. The rules are back to normal and in Texas that means 26 weeks maximum with no extension unless that rate threshold is crossed.

Even the federal government isn't running anything supplemental right now, so there's no workaround through that channel either.

That is a genuinely scary story and I'm going to take it seriously. Week 14 is probably my inflection point to get more aggressive.

She ended up doing some freelance work to stay afloat while continuing to job hunt, and she's tracking toward a new claim if that work ends. It's not ideal but it's something.

The freelance thing is smart but remember you still have to report every dollar you earn to TWC as long as you're claiming, even side income. Net profit for self-employed work counts.

The waiting week does get paid, but only after two specific things happen: TWC has to have paid you at least twice your weekly benefit amount AND you either go back to full-time work or you exhaust your benefits. Both conditions have to be true. If you go back to work before exhausting benefits you have to request it yourself in UBS or through Tele-Serv.

Oh so it's not automatically released, you have to do something to trigger it?

If you exhaust benefits it releases on its own. If you return to full-time work first, you have to actively request it, otherwise it just sits there. The option in UBS is under Request Your Waiting Week.

I forgot to request mine when I went back to work and lost track of it entirely. By the time I remembered my benefit year had closed. Don't make that mistake.

Wait so partial weeks still count against your total? I assumed only full payment weeks reduced the total.

Any week where you get any payment at all, even a reduced one because you worked part-time, counts as one of your weeks. The only weeks that don't count are ones where you earned too much to get any benefit at all.

That's right. A week where your earnings exceed your weekly amount plus 25% means zero payment and zero weeks used. Any week where you get even a dollar means that week is gone from your total.

The 90 minute hold then dropped call situation is exactly what I've been dreading. Glad that worked out for getting the actual calculation explained.

The agent walked through my specific weekly amount and showed me exactly where the 25% cutoff was. Really helped me plan out how much to work without accidentally burning through weeks I couldn't afford to lose.

How do you find out which cap applies to you?

Your award letter from when you first filed should have both numbers, the weekly benefit amount and the maximum benefit amount. You can also check in UBS. The difference between them divided by your weekly amount tells you the maximum number of weeks you can receive payments.

Mine said $619 weekly and I think the maximum was around $14,000 something. So I'm probably close to the 26 week limit not the percentage limit.

Worth clarifying here: even if you're expecting a recall you're still required to do your work search activities unless TWC specifically waives it. You can't just assume a recall situation means you skip the activities. The waiver has to actually be granted.

That's a fair correction, I should have been clearer. You apply for the waiver through TWC, it's not something you decide yourself.

Not in a recall situation so this doesn't apply to me but useful context regardless.

The fraud consequences for not reporting are severe too, it's not just an overpayment situation. There's a 15% penalty on top of whatever you owe back and TWC takes enforcement seriously.

Exactly, and even accidental underreporting can snowball into an overpayment that TWC has to collect. There's no forgiveness provision or hardship exception, they have to recover every dollar regardless of why it happened.

This scared me enough when I first filed that I reported a $40 side job I did for a neighbor. Better safe than sorry honestly.

Ugh I completely forgot about this. I did not set up withholding when I filed. Can I change that now mid-claim?

Yes you can change the withholding election in UBS, it doesn't have to stay at whatever you set when you first filed.

Setting this up right now actually, hadn't thought about it since the initial application.

Did you end up accepting something you wouldn't have otherwise?

Honestly yes. Had an offer that was about 20% below my old salary and I'd been holding out. After that call I accepted it. Sometimes the math just becomes undeniable.

That's probably the kind of nudge I need too. Appreciate you sharing that.

The UBS and WorkInTexas accounts actually share the same login, so the same username and password get you into both. And TWC sends a one-time code every time you log in so make sure your phone number is current for that.

Good point about the two-factor code, I had an old phone number on file once and it was a whole ordeal to get that corrected.

My WorkInTexas profile sat untouched for months before someone mentioned this. Updated it immediately and also found some job matches I hadn't seen through other boards.

Commission-Approved Training is a real thing and it can maintain your eligibility while you do full-time schooling but you have to get TWC approval before you enroll, not after. If you sign up and then try to get it approved retroactively it usually doesn't work.

That's crucial, so I'd need to contact TWC first before signing up for anything?

Exactly. Contact a Tele-Center and ask about it specifically, explain what program you're looking at and when it starts. They'll tell you whether it qualifies and what the approval process looks like.

This is also listed under quitting provisions, interestingly. If you quit a job to do Commission-Approved Training it's one of the situations that might still be payable. Came up in my research when I was considering something similar.