Appealing for State UI Benefits: Filing a Request for Reconsideration
After filing for regular New York State unemployment insurance (UI), many of you are receiving a package in the mail, including, Monetary Benefit Determination (MBD).
The MBD is a document that tells you:
- How much your weekly benefit rate for New York State UI is
- The amount of earnings you made from each company that are counted for New York State UI benefits.
The package also includes, Request for Reconsideration Form.
- This is the form used to appeal a $0 MBD or denial of regular NYS Unemployment.
FULL-TIME Uber/Lyft/FHV Drivers: If you have received a $0 MBD in the mail, you should fill out the Request for Reconsideration now.
If you have a W2 job, and are collecting Unemployment now: If you have received a lower benefit rate because the DOL didn't count your Uber/Lyft/FHV earnings, you should also fill out a Request for Reconsideration, so you can get a higher benefit rate.
Yellow Cab Drivers:
You do not need to fill this out now because you are considered self-employed under the law; you would fill out the PUA MBD if your benefit rate is calculated wrong.
Why Uber/Lyft/FHV Drivers Should Fill Out UI Reconsideration Form:
Under NYS Unemployment Insurance Law, you are an employee with a right to regular state unemployment benefits.
If you work full-time, you will most likely receive a higher benefit rate under NYS UI compared to PUA.
- Your UI benefit rate is based on gross income - the total amount of money your employer paid you, including on tolls.
- Your PUA benefit rate is based on your net income - your income after all of your expenses.
The reason Uber and Lyft drivers have been receiving MBDs that show a $0 benefit rate and $0 in earnings from Uber and Lyft, even if you worked full-time for them, is because Uber/Lyft are not turning over your earnings data to the DOL like they are supposed to! This is also the reason your benefit is delayed for this long.
What You Should Do:
1. Apply for PUA in case it is faster than the time it takes the DOL to process the Reconsideration 2.
AND at the
same time submit a Reconsideration of the denial of regular unemployment. Filing a reconsideration is the way to protect your right to a higher benefit!
HOW TO FILE THE REQUEST FOR RECONSIDERATION:
How to fill out the form:
1. Write down the quarters (every three months) to find the four quarters used to calculate your benefit rate. Do not count the quarter in which you applied and the quarter before that, but then count the four previous quarters.
QUARTERS OVER LAST 18 MONTHS:
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Jan - March 2020
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Oct - Dec 2019
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July - Sept 2019
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April - June 2019
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Jan - March 2019
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Oct-Dec 2018
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- If you applied in March 2020: your quarters are: July-Sep 2019, April-June 2019, Jan-March 2019, and Oct-Dec 2018
- If you applied in April 2020: your quarters are: Oct - Dec 2019, July-Sep 2019, April-June 2019, and Jan-March 2019
2. For each quarter used to calculate your benefit rate, put in your total gross pay:
this is the amount the company actually paid you through direct deposit, including for tolls.
IMPORTANT: for Uber and Lyft, the monthly numbers on your 1099-Ks are not what the companies actually paid you, but are higher amounts, possibly showing what passengers paid.
- For the Uber monthly statement, add 3 months worth of the number listed as "your net payout"-- the large number in black letters, towards the bottom right.
- For Lyft weekly statements, add your "Total Payouts" for each week for every quarter.
Where can I find my gross pay numbers?
UBER:
The easiest place to find your gross pay is on your monthly summaries.
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You add up the Net Payout total number (circled in this example.)
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- Go into your Uber account at partners.uber.com and click on "Tax Information" and then "Monthly Summaries".
- For each month, use the number under "Net Payout" to calculate your gross pay.
- Add up the three months for each quarter and fill it in the form
LYFT:
Lyft does not provide monthly statements in the way that Uber does. So you have to look at your weekly statements.
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For Lyft, you add up the Total Payouts number for each week in a quarter (circled in this example.)
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- Add up the number listed under "Total payouts" for all the weeks in each quarter, to find your gross pay for each quarter.
- If a week covers days in two quarters (for example September 30 -October 6), count the earnings during the quarter when you were paid. So for September 30-October 6, if Lyft paid you for the week on October 7, then you would count that week's earnings as part of the fourth quarter (September-December).
VIA: Look at your bank records or, weekly emails from Via that show how much they paid you and when. It may be called, "total payments due to driver partner."
JUNO: If you worked for Juno, it seems that drivers no longer have any way to look at their earnings records other than a 1099 or bank records. Because the reconsideration form requires you to write your earnings for each quarter,
you will need to look at your bank records or, emails from Juno that show how much they paid you and when.
3. You will also need to write down the name and address of each employer. Here are the addresses for the four high-volume FHV companies:
Uber Technologies, Inc.
1455 Market St. Suite 400
San Francisco, CA 94103
Lyft, Inc.
185 Berry St. Suite 5000
San Francisco, CA 94107
Via
Flatiron Transit, LLC
226 5th Ave., 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10001
Juno USA, LP
74 West Long Lake Road
Suite 205
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304
