Unemployment Compensation and Mystery Shopping

Has anyone here ever done mystery shopping while collecting unemployment benefits from an employer (ie: laid off from a full time job)? Any problems?

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States vary so you will need to read the specifics for your state. I have lived in states where any earned income needed to be reported and Unemployment payment was reduced, I have lived in states where reported earned income below certain thresholds did not reduce Unemployment payment and my son was in a state where earned income only above a threshold needed to be reported.

I've not collected unemployment before, but am now. My benefit (in Michigan) is reduced by approximately 50 cents for every dollar I earn. I've been doing one or three Sonic shops every week since I applied, so between $8 and $32 in earnings each week with approximately half of that deducted from the $160 in unemployment from the state. I do get the $600 PUA minus state and federal taxes taken out of the weekly benefit also.

There is a section when I file weekly claims to enter what I earned from "self employed" for that week. There's also a warning that any attempts of fraud will be investigated. I don't know how they would investigate what we earned and what goes into our paypal accounts, but that said, I've been staying in and not risking anything. No need to make extra trips to the store.

I applied in Florida and was able to submit the information and received an email that the state has the application. I used my 1099 from 2019 and one of the questions was if I had earned more than $4500. I did not and did not include Jan- March of 2020 so I probably will not qualify for anything.

Thanks. I have mystery shopped while on unemployment in the past and it was such a hassle, especially whenever there was a week with no income. Each time I had to reopen my claim and answer a ton of questions and sometimes my payment was delayed.

I'm getting excited seeing the shops starting up again but right now unemployment is so backed up and messed up in our state, I'm afraid to risk what I am getting by earning a few bucks from shopping.

@chiffon cupcakes wrote:

There is a section when I file weekly claims to enter what I earned from "self employed" for that week. There's also a warning that any attempts of fraud will be investigated. I don't know how they would investigate what we earned and what goes into our paypal accounts, but that said, I've been staying in and not risking anything. No need to make extra trips to the store.

UC authorities could compare your 2020 tax return, once filed, to what they projected would be your income for 2020 based on your 2019 tax return and information you provided on your UC claims. If something seemed out of wack, they could investigate deeper. Or you could be a random audit. The question would be, do they have the budget and staffing to do such audits. Regardless, what sort of person would commit fraud under any conditions?

Someone would commit fraud thinking that if they made less than $6900 they would think that they do not have to report it. Which I have always thought was ludicrous that they would think that. Computers have allowed them to cross-check since the '50s. Let us just go through a few steps. I have over 200 people working for my company as IC's they have made anywhere from a few dozen dollars to almost $600. Now do I just ignore those payouts or do I submit the info to the IRS and take a misc. deduction on the Payouts. You can guess which.

My guess would be the same people who have posted on this forum admitting to the fraudulent ways they have done reports. Very sad.

@Rousseau wrote:

Regardless, what sort of person would commit fraud under any conditions?

Kim

@kimmiemae wrote:

My guess would be the same people who have posted on this forum admitting to the fraudulent ways they have done reports. Very sad.

@Rousseau wrote:

Regardless, what sort of person would commit fraud under any conditions?

Hahaha!! I remember reading one of those posts and was shocked. And then I understood why all the companies have so many warnings about fraudulent activity. A few bad apples ruin it for the rest of us.

Also, @buddy-99, what Flash said earlier was the best advice. Check with your state on how much you can earn before you start getting deductions. Maybe you can go out and do a few shops without getting docked.

My state says I can earn up to $80 a week or so without it impacting my benefits, and as I filed based on my gross income after expenses I’d feel comfortable using the same basis for my present income.

The base period, until the end of June, is 1/1/19 to 12/31/19 so they would not count Jan-Mar anyway. But you can count your non-1099 income from last year as well.

@Insight wrote:

I applied in Florida and was able to submit the information and received an email that the state has the application. I used my 1099 from 2019 and one of the questions was if I had earned more than $4500. I did not and did not include Jan- March of 2020 so I probably will not qualify for anything.

My initial claim was denied because my benefit (way less than expected) was below my earnings for 4 straight weeks.

I have since refiled, and am waiting to see if my claim will be accepted. I'm in UT, and it is my understanding is that any gross earnings will be deducted from benefits. As I'm required not to turn down available work, the trick, best I can tell, is to take some IC jobs, but not so many that gross pay exceeds benefits.

In Tennessee, you can earn $50 without impacting your UE. After that they deduct dollar for dollar.

In Idaho, if you worked for any $ in a week that you file your "certification" you have to report the amount you earned and that amount is taken out of your weekly benefit

@sueac101 wrote:

In Idaho, if you worked for any $ in a week that you file your "certification" you have to report the amount you earned and that amount is taken out of your weekly benefit

It appears to be the same in Nevada.

@CoolMusic wrote:

My initial claim was denied because my benefit (way less than expected) was below my earnings for 4 straight weeks.

I have since refiled, and am waiting to see if my claim will be accepted. I'm in UT, and it is my understanding is that any gross earnings will be deducted from benefits. As I'm required not to turn down available work, the trick, best I can tell, is to take some IC jobs, but not so many that gross pay exceeds benefits.

I think you don't have a very good understanding of how this works.

I am a full time self employed mystery shopper. It is my sole source of income (kinda. I own 1/3 of an LLC that owns rental property but it operates at a tax loss). Therefore, I am both employer and employee. There is a strong argument that mystery shops being available on a job board is not at all an offer of work. But even if it is as an employer I am unwilling to subject my employee to exposure to Covid-19. On top of that, as an employer, there is not enough work out there to justify paying an employee, me, without losing money. Since I don't want to lose money, nor do I want to endanger my employee's health, I, as an employer, have not entered into any business agreements and therefore have no work to offer my employee, me.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

Gross income after expenses is net income.

@NinS wrote:

My state says I can earn up to $80 a week or so without it impacting my benefits, and as I filed based on my gross income after expenses I’d feel comfortable using the same basis for my present income.

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