Could Blogging Cost You Your Unemployment Check?

A laid-off lawyer’s personal blog, which brought her a total of $238.75 over the course of several months, prompted the geniuses at the New York State Department of Labor to cut off her benefits.

Seems the DOL had conflicting opinions over whether the money she “made” from her blog about meal deals constituted residual income (money made from past work, like royalties from a book) or self-employment income. So they put her checks on hold while they investigate her “business,” according to a story at Forbes.com.

Blogging isn’t the only hazard the unemployed face. A friend of mine who was laid off in November is fighting the DOL over her charity work. This enterprising woman started the New York branch of a national organization that helps teenage girls. She’s is paid not a penny for the hours she spends on the organization, but the DOL wants to withhold her benefits because she’s on the board of the chapter–a “corporation.”

Are we really going to penalize unemployed people for volunteering?

Need we elaborate on how wasteful, counter-productive and just plain stupid this is? Many employment experts are advising laid-off Americans to blog and tweet in order to stay on top of industry news, learn new skills and keep their name in circulation. If they throw some Google ads up on the site to cover costs and make $1 a day (which is often the resulting payoff), they risk losing their safety net.

The country’s non-profits have been hit hard by the downturn, but at least they’ve benefited from the high unemployment, as bright, motivated professionals offer up their free time. Are we really going to penalize unemployed people for volunteering, which could also help them find new jobs as they make connections and expand their skills?

Meanwhile, a cash-strapped state is spending precious tax dollars to investigate sums like $240–which the lawyer wasn’t even hiding. She felt obliged to declare it to the state, and got punished for her candor.