If you've lost your job and are now one of the growing number of people who receive an unemployment check, you might lose it if you make money blogging. Not big money, mind you. It could be a measly dollar a day from Google Adsense that might leave you without an unemployment check. In fact, laid-off attorney in New York lost her benefits because she was bringing in $1.30 a day from blog ads.
When a New York attorney was laid off from her job and filed for unemployment benefits, she started a blog, called STL Meal Deals, where she wrote about local restaurant promotions. She then tried to generate some income by signing up for Google AdSense and placed ads on her blog. Google sends bloggers checks when their earnings hit $100. This took three months for the blogger to achieve and after 90 days she collected $238.75 from her Google ads.
According to New York state regulations, anyone receiving unemployment benefits who works one day and earns less than $405 will have his check for the week reduced by 25%. Someone who earns more than $405 in a single week becomes ineligible for any payments for that week. This prompted the unemployed attorney to immediately disclose her Adsense income to the New York State Department of Labor.
That's when things got messy. According to an article in Forbes.com, New York cut her weekly benefits to $300 and sent her a form to fill out and send to her employer. Unsure whether Google was considered her employer, she called the DOL to get an answer. She says a state official told her she shouldn't have claimed the AdSense payment as income because it was "residual," meaning a payment made for services previously rendered. New York does not regard residual income as employment pay that could make someone ineligible for unemployment benefits.
The woman then informed The New York DOL that she was running a blog and that the Google AdSense revenue it generated was her only source of income. She then received a letter from the DOL informing her that it had launched an investigation of her "business" to determine whether she remained eligible for benefits.
Looking for another opinion, the blogger called the DOL and was told by yet another state official that she needed to declare that she was working every time that she updated her blog. Meanwhile, New York State has informed Karin that she is ineligible for unemployment benefits while its investigation is ongoing.
If you are applying for unemployment, keep in mind that the "big brother is watching" mentality is now part of many government programs. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and public blogs are easily tracked through a simple Google search. You may find that the $1 a day you make blogging could cost you your unemployment check.
Cheryl Phillips
Exclusive to HULIQ.com
source: Forbes
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