Understanding exactly how much income you will receive will help you prepare a realistic budget you can live with. If you don’t understand the deductions the Pennsylvania Labor and Industry applies on insured unemployed workers, you may be in for a surprise. This article will detail the deductions the Unemployment Insurance agency can apply to your weekly benefit amount.

Blanket reduction in benefits due to a low balance in the Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation Trust. This Trust funds the state part of the UC program. For more information on this reduction read this article (click here).

Part-Time Income . If your part-time income while receiving unemployment benefits is larger than your partial benefit credit (40 percent of your weekly benefit amount), your weekly benefit amount will be deducted. Click here for a full description of how this deduction is calculated.

Pensions . You will have to deduct some or all of the income you receive from a pension from your unemployment compensation if the pension was setup or contributed to by one of your base-period employers. If only your employer contributed to the pension fund, all of the pension must be deducted from your benefits. If you contributed towards the pension fund, however modestly, only 50 percent is deductible.

There are some exceptions to these rules. For instance, if you did not have the option of receiving periodic payments and received a lump-sum payment then the pension is not deductible. Also if you invest a lump-sum pension payment into an IRA or some other pension fund, it will not be deducted. Finally, if you are receiving Social Security or Railroad retirement funds, you don’t have to worry about deductions.

Back Wage Awards. If you received some kind of back wage award while you received unemployment compensation your eligibility for UC may be jeopardized.

Support Orders. If you have financial obligations, such as child support or some other type of court-ruled payment, it will be deducted from your unemployment compensation. For a full discussion of how support orders are deducted from your weekly benefit rate click here.

Notice that any deduction to your weekly benefit amount will be informed to you before it is made. You can appeal against any deduction you feel is unfair or inaccurate. However, remember you must file an appeal to the UC Board of Review within 15 days of receiving notice of a deduction to your benefits. You have 30 days to appeal against a decision from a UC Board of Review decision.

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