Virginia Unemployment Compensation Law

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JLS09

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I am trying to help my sister-in-law with a denial she received when she applied for Unemployment.

Here's the situtation - My sister-in-law worked in banking and my brother has his own construction business. They lived in Virginia for the past 12 years; however, due to the economy this past year(2009), they really found themselves in a bad way. They just built a brand new home that was completed at the end of 2008, however in 2009, my brother's work had declined severely (due to economy), my sister-in-law got transferred to another branch that was over an hour away (before she worked only 15 minutes away and when they transferred her they would not compensate her for her travel), they had their first baby in April of 09 (in which when he was able to go to daycare that was an additional $800.00 a month). Well needless to say with one thing happening after another, they got into financial difficulties.

They tried to make it work for as long as they could, such as letting their not so important bills go delinquent so they would at least have money to pay their car payments, mortgage and childcare. However, due to the position my sister-in-law had at the bank, she could be terminated if her mortgage went delinquent because she had the loan through her employer. They were really put in a bad way, so instead of losing their home through the bank and my sister-in-law being terminated, they decided to move back home to family in PA. My brother already had jobs lined up from the help of family members, they wouldn't have the expense of childcare due to a family members available to watch the baby, plus from the proceeds of the sale of the house, they would be able to payoff current debt and get everything up-to-date.

My sister-in-law is currently looking for work, but to no avail as of yet. She applied for Virginia Unemployment but was denied due to the fact that she did not quit due to a "good cause" (following a spouse does not constitute a good cause). However, wouldn't financial difficulties constitute a good cause, such as loosing a home and/or a job if they left the situation go any further.

She is currently going to file an appeal. And we are going to work on that together. So any help or advice would be greatly appreciated from anyone who knows the Virginia law or had a similar experience? Also, does anyone know of a website to where we can look up other Virginia unemployment appeal hearing decisions of similar circumstances to reference in the appeal.

Thanks for listening. JLS
 
No. Unemployment is not a needs based program. When you quit you do not get unemployment benefits except in very limited circumstances when you quit for a reason ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE EMPLOYER. Sexual harassment, for example. Or not being paid.

While there are rare, state specific occasions when quitting for a personal reason can be approved (for example, in my state you can SOMETIMES be approved if you quit for child care issues) I don't know of any state where quitting for financial reasons is approved. The state, logically, figures that if your finances are that bad, you need to be working, not quitting. Besides, unemployment pays only a fraction of what you were earning, so unemployment benefits are not going to solve finanical issues.

I'm not unsympathetic to her situation but I don't think she has a prayer of being approved.
 
cbg

Thank you for your reply.

I thought I would try to help her out anyway that I could cause I know it was a difficult and embarrassing decision for the both of them. Plus, I know the unemployment laws from state to state are different. Again, thank you for your time.
 
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