Are Georgia Unemployment Benefits Affected by Receiving Retirement Pay?

Eligibility for unemployment benefits often depends on a number of factors.

Unemployment insurance (UI) laws differ from state to state. In the state of Georgia, individuals who have been become unemployed because of no fault of their own and are seeking another job, can apply for temporary UI benefits. Benefits are paid based on the number of months that an individual has worked immediately prior to the unemployment, called the base period.

Eligibility

UI applicants who are receiving a retirement pension are eligible to apply for unemployment, but must declare the pension on their application. Whether they will receive unemployment depends on whether a) they retired from employment with a base period employer, or prior to the base period of employment; and b) how much the base period employer contributes to the retirement.

Retirement from a Base Period Employer

If a base period employer contributes 50 percent or more to the pension, UI deducts $1 for every dollar that the employer contributes to the pension. So, if the applicant receives a pension of $300 a week, and the employer contributes 50 percent toward the pension, UI will deduct $150 from the applicant's UI benefits each week. If the employer's contribution exceeds the amount that the applicant would receive from UI, the applicant will not be able to receive unemployment benefits.

Retirement Prior to the Base Period

If the applicant retired from an employer prior to the base period, the employer's contributions to the pension are not deductible. Therefore, an applicant can receive the entire UI benefit without having the retirement contribution deducted from the weekly UI benefit.

References

• Georgia Department of Labor: Frequently Asked Questions

Resources

• Georgia Department of Labor: Frequently Asked Questions