The US Gubment is still giving money to NEETs for doing nothing this corona season. The best program for NEETs/self-employed/gig workers/etc is called Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA). It gives out $12-15 THOUSAND DOLLARS within DAYS if you qualify.
The benefits come in weekly payments of around $700-800 (different by state) and it’s retroactive to February or March, which means the first check will be a pretty big lump sum. The end of March to the end of July have the biggest payments, and you can get around $15k when all is said and done, provided you were not employed (or working less than usual) for the entire spring.
There is no documentation required, only your SSN (proving you are officially unemployed). You simply declare you worked last year at something (could be mowing lawns for $200 a week, whatever) and corona is now preventing you from doing your job.
Example: Joe is a NEET. He lives in his parents’ basement. His only job last year was occasionally doing yard work for old people around the neighborhood, mostly for his parents, who pay him to do it. He made less than $12,000 last year so he didn’t even have to file his federal income taxes. When Joe called the unemployment office (for the first time in his life), he told his situation to the agent on the line, and then said he hadn’t worked since March 2020 because of corona. There was no documentation proving any of this, but the agent could tell by Joe’s voice that he was a stand-up guy who wouldn’t lie. Within a week Joe got a direct deposit from the gubberment for nearly $10,000, and weekly checks afterwards for over $750 through the end of July. (The $10k was retroactive backpay for previous weeks unemployed.) By the end Joe will have collected over $14k in free gibs from PUA alone.
This is NOT like traditional unemployment which is pretty difficult to get (you have to have been fired through no fault of your own, and prove you are looking for work, etc.) For PUA funds, you can just tell them what you were doing last year, and declare that corona is now preventing you from working (or forcing you to work less than before) and you can get the gibs. Of course you have to give them information on what company you worked for but if you were self-employed your company would just be yourself. Most states do not require any weekly proof of looking for work to collect PUA money.
You can get PUA money of $100-200 per week (depending on your state) for most of the weeks of this year (2020). However, the months of April thru July get an ADDITIONAL $600 WEEKLY BOOST. So that’s $600, plus the regular amount, for 19 weeks.
($600 + $100-200) * 19 = $13-15k total.
Remember, the end of March to the end of July have the biggest payments, so it’s most gibworthy if you were not working at that time.
The money is federal but it has already been given to the states, so there IS a limited amount. The deadline to apply is July 31 but you should definitely try to apply as soon as possible.
To find the correct website with information for your state, type "PUA [your state]" into google, and look for your state’s unemployment website. It might be difficult to apply now, as the state unemployment websites go down a lot, but use all the contact methods you can, including phone and email, and eventually you will be able to get through and send in your application. I think a lot of people are giving up as soon as they see the website is down. (It’s possible the states are making it harder to apply because they’re trying to keep the money.)
Ryder Robinson
We burgers are all probably going to pay more taxes from this for the rest of our lives, so we should at least get as much of this stimulus as we can. Again, the money has already been given to the states to dispense, so anything that doesn’t get claimed by July 31 will taken by rich people one way or the other. Good luck getting your freedom bucks!
(If you want to thank me, use your new freedom bucks to buy PAMP on Hotbit.)
Caleb Cruz
I was disqualified from my state's UI and the additional federal $600 a week after turning down a work request. I collected benefits until early June, and haven't worked since the end of March. I don't think I qualify for any of this, right?
Christopher Sullivan
how many linkies is that?
Oliver Perry
What's the catch? I'm self employed and have been getting Disaster UA because work has come to a standstill, but it's supposed to end at the end of the month. I work with public events so I'm almost certainly fucked for the rest of the year work-wise.
Jose Garcia
The Cares Act supposedly allows PUA unemployment claims to WAIVE the search required for standard unemploynent claims. Some states have been reported as trying to make this a requirement but they are BREAKING THE LAW and will probably be sued in the near future. Arkansas, Missouri, and Nebraska are a few that have reinstated the condition so far...
Did you apply specifically for PUA? It’s seperate and you would usually do it AFTER getting denied for UI (traditional unemployment). So apply for UI, get denied, apply for PUA, get approved.
Noah Murphy
I thought everyone was already on this? 40 million are still unemployed for a reason, dumbdumbs.
Parker Smith
The catch is most people don’t seem to know about it and the states don’t necessarily make it easy to apply (crashing websites, long wait times on the phone, etc.) PUA is specifically for gig workers and self-employed so you should get it if you can manage to get your application in.
Landon Cooper
worked at a chevron and got laid off due to me not showing to one of my shifts, the manager started screaming at me saying I have fucked her over and the company essentially, but now i’m starting to think this was fud and the actual reason for being fired was due to to the hours being cut across the board due to corona
