How much can you make while on unemployment in Texas TWC?

Wait so if I work Monday through Friday but don't get my check until the following Friday, I still report it in the week I worked? That's the part that was tripping me up.

Exactly right, report it for the week you did the work regardless of when the paycheck hits your account. That's how TWC wants it.

This is the clearest explanation of that rule I've seen on here. The 'when you worked not when you got paid' part confuses a lot of people including me when I first filed.

Yeah I learned this the hard way. I was doing some reselling on the side and figured it was too small to matter. TWC sent me an overpayment letter and I had to pay back several hundred dollars. Report everything, seriously.

I'm only doing the warehouse job, no gig stuff. But good to know in case I ever do pick up something like that.

Reselling for profit counts too? Like selling stuff on eBay or Facebook Marketplace? I had no idea that was reportable income.

If you're buying things specifically to resell them for a profit, yeah that counts as self-employment income. Personal items you're just getting rid of are different but anything that's essentially a business activity needs to be reported.

My work schedule varies every week so my earnings are never the same. Might actually use that to call and ask how to handle weeks where I don't know my final hours until after the payment request deadline.

Filing days for payment requests run Sunday through Wednesday and if you miss that window you can still file Thursday through Saturday of that same week. Missing that whole window is the bigger problem.

The agent I spoke with said the same thing about the filing window. Really helpful to get it confirmed directly.

That's actually reassuring. I was worried that even one shift would make me ineligible for the whole week.

So does that mean I should be accepting any part-time work that comes my way even if I'm hoping for a full-time position? Or can I turn it down without it affecting my claim?

You have to be able and available for full-time work every week to keep getting benefits. And TWC does have rules about suitable work, in the first eight weeks you're supposed to accept jobs paying at least 90 percent of what you used to earn. After that it drops to 75 percent. Turning down suitable work can get you disqualified so it's not something to do casually.

Okay that's more complicated than I thought. So I shouldn't turn down part-time work even if it pays way less than my old job?

The 90 and 75 percent thresholds apply to the wage, not the hours. If a part-time job pays way less per hour than you were making, the suitable work rule might not apply the same way. But I'd check with TWC on your specific situation rather than assuming.

The information is on TWC's site but yeah it's buried. You'd think they'd put a big bold box on the payment request page that says 'here's how earnings affect your payment this week' but instead you have to go hunting for it.

Exactly, they expect you to already know all this. First time filer with no clue and I just assumed more earnings always meant less benefits dollar for dollar. Cost me money I didn't need to lose.

For anyone reading this who is confused about the same thing: earning less than 25% of your weekly benefit amount in a week means your payment that week is completely unchanged. Only earnings above that 25% threshold actually reduce what you receive.

Always report gross earnings, the full amount before any deductions. Taxes, insurance, 401k contributions, none of that gets subtracted first. The raw total hours times your hourly rate is what you report.

Okay that makes sense. I had a feeling it was gross but wanted to be sure. I've been rounding down to whole dollars which I read is correct.

Rounding down to whole dollars is exactly right according to TWC's rules. So $347.89 gets reported as $347.

They said it's day-by-day for now, like they call you if they have shifts available. So I honestly don't know week to week how many hours I'll get. That makes the payment requests a bit of a guessing game.

Not a guessing game though, you report what you actually worked each week not what you think you might work. Each payment request covers two specific weeks so you're always reporting hours that already happened.

Oh right, I keep thinking of it as forward looking but you're just reporting what already happened. That does make it simpler.

The on-call type work is actually really common for people on unemployment. As long as you're accurately reporting each week individually you should be fine.

Yes the work search requirement stays the same unless TWC specifically waives it for you. You still need to do however many activities your local Workforce Development Board set for your county. TWC mails you a letter with your specific number and that letter is what you go by.

So I could be working 25 hours a week at a part time job AND still need to do work search activities on top of that?

That's correct. You have to stay active in your job search and keep a log of your work search activities because TWC can ask for it at any time. Part-time employment doesn't pause or reduce that requirement on its own.

That feels like a lot but okay. Good to know I shouldn't slack on the work search log just because I have some income coming in.

WorkInTexas.com registration is literally one of the first things you're supposed to do after filing. It uses the same login as UBS which is at least convenient.

He didn't realize it was required. Nobody told him and he just assumed since he was working a bit he was fine. The disqualification letter came out of nowhere for him.

The same login for both makes it less confusing but I still managed to confuse them at first. Worth double checking you're actually on WorkInTexas.com when you're doing your job search activities and not just browsing random job boards.

I actually didn't fully understand that until right now. I thought it was asking about the whole two-week period combined. So I need to be tracking my hours by week not just totaling them up?

Exactly. Keep a note of your hours week by week. Combining them would mess up the calculation because a week where you earned a lot might push you over the limit while a week you barely worked would be under. TWC treats them separately.

This tripped me up early on too. I reported two weeks combined on my first request and had to call TWC to get it sorted out. Report each week individually.

Okay I just did my first payment request last week and I see what you mean, the questions are definitely week by week. I think I was overthinking how complicated it would be.

First one is always the most nerve-wracking. After a couple rounds it becomes routine.

The way to think about it is any earnings above that 25% cushion come directly off your payment. So earning $500 means $500 minus $120 (the 25% allowance) equals $380 that gets deducted, leaving you with $100 in benefits. Earning $601 means $601 minus $120 equals $481 deducted from your $480 benefit which wipes it out entirely.

Right the math works out to basically no benefit at that level. Which makes sense, if you're earning close to or more than your benefit amount you're doing okay without it.

This thread has genuinely helped me understand something I was completely confused about. The 25% buffer thing was not obvious to me at all from TWC's materials.

Account-specific stuff is exactly why you need to actually talk to someone. The website and the automated Tele-Serv system can't answer nuanced questions like that.

Tele-Serv is great for checking payment status or filing a request but yeah for anything complicated you need a live agent.

My overpayment situation dragged on for months partly because I couldn't get a clear answer about how to set up a payment plan. Eventually got it sorted but it took way longer than it should have.

I've seen that waiver myth repeated so many times. Someone told me I could get mine wiped because it wasn't my fault and I spent weeks trying to find the waiver form before someone set me straight. There isn't one.

Exactly. The rule is that TWC must recover every overpayment. There's no hardship exception and no statute of limitations. If you believe the overpayment is calculated incorrectly you have 14 days from the date on the determination letter to file an appeal, but that's disputing the amount not asking for forgiveness.

What happens if you just can't afford to pay it back all at once?

You pay what you can when you get the billing statement. TWC accepts any amount you send. They also collect by holding back future benefit payments and through federal tax refund offsets. But there's no formal payment plan application process you fill out, you just pay what you can.

Don't estimate. If your pay stubs or time records break down your hours by week you use those exact numbers. If you genuinely cannot determine the week-by-week breakdown call TWC before you file. Submitting guesses can create problems if they ever audit your request.

My job texts me my schedule so I can go back and figure out which shifts were in which week. I'll do that before filing. Thanks for not letting me just guess.

Going forward keep a simple weekly note with your hours. Even just a text to yourself on Sunday night with how many hours you worked that week. Saves so much trouble at payment request time.

You need to contact TWC to correct it. If you were paid more than you should have been because of the error it becomes an overpayment. It's much better to proactively correct it than to hope TWC doesn't catch it because they often do, especially when earnings data comes in from employers.

Yeah I figured waiting wasn't smart. I'll call them. The amount is small but I'd rather fix it now than get a letter later.

Calling to correct an honest mistake is always the right move. Knowingly not reporting earnings is considered fraud and carries a 15 percent penalty on top of the repayment. Calling to fix an accidental omission is treated very differently.

I definitely want full time work eventually, the warehouse gig is just to help cover things in the meantime. But yeah I hadn't thought about whether TWC expects me to be actively pursuing full time work even while I have part time income.

Keep doing your work search activities, keep your log, and make sure you'd actually take a full time job if one came through. That's the main thing.

The work search log is something people sleep on. TWC can ask for it at any time and if you can't produce it you can be disqualified retroactively for weeks you already received payment on.

The 1099-G will show what you were actually paid, not what your maximum benefit would have been. So if earnings reduced your payments for several weeks, the 1099-G only reflects the lower amounts you actually received.

That makes sense. I was worried about a weird tax situation where I'd owe on money I never actually got.

Unemployment benefits are taxable federal income. TWC mails the 1099-G every January and it's also available in UBS. You can opt into voluntary 10 percent federal withholding if you want to avoid a tax bill in April.

The withholding option I didn't know about. How do you set that up?

You can set up withholding through UBS or by contacting TWC directly. It's worth doing if you'd rather not deal with a potentially large tax bill when you file your return.

The message system is so slow. I sent a message in September and got a reply almost four weeks later. By that point I'd already figured it out myself.

Exactly, some questions just can't wait four weeks. The on-hold times are brutal but actually talking to someone got it resolved in one call.

For something like a data entry error I'd want that fixed fast too. Good to know there's a way to actually reach someone.

Agreed, this thread answered more questions in one afternoon than a week of trying to read TWC's website. I feel a lot better about starting these shifts now.

TWC's official FAQ pages are pretty surface level. Real situations have complications that don't fit neatly into a FAQ.

Just stay organized week by week, report your gross earnings for the right week, keep doing your work search activities, and you'll be fine. The system works if you work it correctly.