CLAIMANT’S UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE BENEFITS PROPERLY REDUCED TO ZERO BECAUSE CLAIMANT’S PENSION EXCEEDED THE AMOUNT OF THE BENEFITS (THIRD DEPT).
The Third Department determined the amount of unemployment insurance benefits for claimant, a professional violinist, was properly reduced to zero based upon claimant’s pension:
Consistent with the provisions of Labor Law § 600 (1) (a), the benefit rate of a claimant who is receiving a governmental or other pension “shall be reduced . . . if such [pension] payment is made under a plan maintained or contributed to by [the] base period employer and . . . the claimant’s employment with, or remuneration from, such employer after the beginning of the base period . . . increased the amount of . . . such pension” … . “Under the plain language of the statute, the specified reduction shall be made where a claimant’s base period employer made a pension fund contribution during the base period which increased the claimant’s pension” … .
… [T]he record establishes that, during the relevant base period, claimant received a pension benefit that, in turn, was fully funded by the contributing employers. The record further makes clear — and claimant does not dispute — that the work performed by her during the base period and the corresponding contributions made by her employers increased the monetary value of her pension. Under these circumstances, and given that the prorated weekly amount of claimant’s pension benefit exceeded her weekly unemployment insurance benefit (see Labor Law § 600 [1] [b]), the statutory reduction was triggered, and claimant’s unemployment insurance benefit rate was properly reduced to zero … . Matter of Morganstern (Commissioner of Labor), 2021 NY Slip Op 06416, Third Dept 11-18-21