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If you've lost your job in Massachusetts, the state provides an important safety net through its unemployment insurance program. You must qualify for the program by meeting eligibility rules, and continue searching for work. Only your earned income is counted by the state. Money from 401(k) accounts does not figure in the eligibility rules, but can affect the amount of your ongoing benefits.
Applying For Benefits
Massachusetts pays unemployment benefits without taking into account the status of your 401(k) account. The benefit amount is a percentage of the wages you earned during the base year, not including your own contributions to the account. If your previous employer set up a 401(k), you can continue making contributions to the account even after losing your job. If you close the account, it won't affect your eligibility for Massachusetts unemployment benefits.
Offsetting 401(k) Withdrawals
If you're unemployed, you may be able to take withdrawals under the Internal Revenue Service rules from your 401(k) account to help pay for living expenses. If you withdraw money from your 401(k) while on unemployment, however, Massachusetts will deduct 50 percent of the withdrawal from your benefit. If you're taking regular monthly withdrawals, the state divides that amount by 4.3 to arrive at a weekly amount you're receiving, and then deducts 50 percent from the weekly unemployment benefit.
Lump-Sum Distributions
If you close the 401(k) account and take a lump-sum distribution, Massachusetts will subtract a pro-rated amount (again, at 50 percent of the total withdrawal) through the remaining period of your unemployment eligibility. If you have 10 weeks of unemployment remaining, for example, the state applies the offset to 10 percent of the distribution amount. If you find a job before all of the lump-sum distribution has been offset, the state may claim an overpayment. You will have to reimburse the balance, either all at once or through an installment agreement.
Eligibility
There are several requirements you have to meet before getting unemployment in Massachusetts. You must have been fired or laid off; if you lost your job for cause, or just quit, you can't draw unemployment. You must be capable of working, and agree to look for a new job. There's an earning requirement as well. You must have earned at least $3,500, or 30 times your weekly unemployment benefit, during a "base year," which runs prior to the date you file for unemployment.
References
Writer Bio
Founder/president of the innovative reference publisher The Archive LLC, Tom Streissguth has been a self-employed business owner, independent bookseller and freelance author in the school/library market. Holding a bachelor's degree from Yale, Streissguth has published more than 100 works of history, biography, current affairs and geography for young readers.
How Pension Income and Retirement Account Withdrawals Can Impact Unemployment Benefits
As the economy continues to slow, unemployment claims continue to rise at historic rates. Due to this expected increase in unemployment, the CARES Act included provisions for Coronavirus related distributions which give people access to retirement dollars with more favorable tax treatment. Details on these distributions can be found here. With retirement dollars becoming more accessible with the CARES Act, a common question we are receiving is “Will a retirement distribution impact my Unemployment Benefits?”.
Unemployment Benefits vary from state to state and therefore the answer to this question can be different depending on the state you reside in. This article will focus on New York State Unemployment Benefits, but a lot of the items discussed may be applied similarly in other states.
The answer to this question also depends on the type of retirement account you are receiving money from so we will touch on the most common.
Note: Typically, to qualify for unemployment insurance benefits, you must have been paid minimum wage during the “base period”. Base period is defined as the first four quarters of the last five calendar quarters prior to the calendar quarter which the claim is effective. “Base period employer” is any employer that paid the claimant during the base period.
Pension Reduction
Money received from a pension that a base period employer contributed to will result in a dollar for dollar reduction in your unemployment benefit. Even if you partially contributed to the pension, 100% of the amount received will result in an unemployment benefit reduction.
If you were the sole contributor to the pension, then the unemployment benefit should not be impacted.
Even if you are retired from a job and receiving a pension, you may still qualify for unemployment benefits if you are actively seeking employment.
Qualified Retirement Plans (examples; 401(k), 403(b))
If the account you are accessing is from a base period employer, a withdrawal from a qualified retirement plan could result in a reduction in your unemployment benefit. It is common for retirement plans to include some type of match or profit-sharing element which would qualify as an employer contribution. Accounts which include employer contributions may result in a reduction of your unemployment benefit.
We recommend you contact the unemployment claims center to determine how these distributions would impact your benefit amount before taking them.
IRA
No unemployment benefit rate reduction will occur if the distribution is from a qualified IRA.Knowing there is no reduction caused by qualified IRA withdrawals, a common practice is rolling money from a qualified retirement plan into an IRA and then accessing it as needed. Once you are no longer at the employer, you are often able to take a distribution from the plan. Rolling it into an IRA and accessing the money from that account rather than directly from the retirement plan could result in a higher unemployment benefit.
NYS Unemployment Home Page
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