 Hi everyone, we are just waiting for a few more people to join and then we will just start it. No, are we good? Yep. Good afternoon and welcome everyone. I don't know if you can see me, but I'm Andel Castiglio, Commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment and we are very happy to welcome you all here. For those of you who may not be familiar with our office, many of you might know us mostly as the film office issuing permits, but in the last several years our office has expanded to include five divisions now. In addition to permitting film and television production, we also run the city's municipal radio and broadcast network, NYC Media, we also have the Office of Nightlight, the press credentials office, and creative sector programs which covers film, television, theater and music, advertising, publishing and digital content including video games. So we're essentially the focus of our office in addition to supporting our film and television industry is really supporting, promoting and growing all of New York City's creative sectors which represent about 150 billion in economic activity and close to half a million jobs. Film and television production still represent the lion's share of our creative economy with 82 billion in economic activity and roughly 185,000 jobs. And so with that in mind, we are at the end of week three of the writer's guilt strike and we don't really have a read on how long it will go, but we certainly wanted to make sure that creative workers or workers that are supporting the creative economy have access to the information and resources that you may need during this time. And so I want to thank our panelists, Lars Thompson from the New York State Department of Labor, Carlos Ortiz from the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, Leonard Battle and Arian Cabarrillas from New York City's small business services, Barbara Davis, Lillian Galena, Patsh Shwadron from the Entertainment Community Fund and Rafael Espanol from the Freelancers Hub. I also want to acknowledge that Alton Murray from the Department of Consumer, excuse me, the Department of Cultural Affairs is joining us as well. You know, the people, the panelists represented here are here to share information about resources that are available to all of you. I also just want to take a minute to acknowledge and thank the staff at MoM that pulled us together in record time. Thaubry Crouch who is our deputy director of the film office, Marisa Radanti who is our creative sector programs outreach coordinator and Noel Murray who is our creative sector programs associate. And so with that I know we want to get underway, make sure that we can get this webinar underway and so I'm going to throw it over to you Thaubry to moderate. Thank you Commissioner. I also wanted to add thank you for your fearless leadership and again pulling this together in record time. So we have first up in our panel of esteemed speakers is Lars Thompson. Associate commissioner for UI claims processing and quality review for the New York State Department of Labor. As we talk about the Department of Labor and you ID, the New York State Department of Labor is committed to transforming New York's world of work through empowering and protecting workers, building and supporting businesses and helping New Yorkers find the careers they love the DOL assist those who have lost their jobs at no fault of their own through unemployment insurance. Okay, getting fired up here. Thank you very much. W director and thank you again Commissioner for for having us here today. I'm going to share my screen here and get underway looks like should be up and running. Okay, so a little bit to cover on the next few minutes here I'm here to talk today about the unemployment insurance program that the New York State Department of Labor runs. And first thing I wanted to make sure everyone knew was this we have a multitude of resources available online, directly to unemployment insurance the top address is the one you're going to want to have that is a short picture goes right to our website that is on.ny.gov slash UI, and also our main webpage for the Department of Labor and all the services we want to connect our workers with is DOL.ny.gov. I'm here today to talk about unemployment insurance, quote unquote regular unemployment insurance, talk a little bit about what it is. It's temporary income. It's funded by employers here in the state for workers who become unemployed to do no fault of their own and obviously the most important bullet here for today this does include all the workers in the surrounding industries that have been impacted by the acts of the last few weeks. It's fully funded for by employer payroll taxes workers do not pay for it. Do not pay into it here in the state of New York so it's been paid fully paid for by the work that is being done every day. Let's talk a little bit about some qualification requirements here again this is just the high level we're going through it just you have some baseline information. Obviously you have to have worked in some calendar quarters, there's some earnings requirement. This is $3100 is the minimum in a quarter which is again 13 week period of time. You have to have earned a certain amount of money there's there's a formula there, and you also must be employed to no fault of your own and one thing I'd like to highlight on our website is we actually do have a calculator, where you can enter in your account and it will give you an estimate of what it is your benefit may be. One of the bullets here we talked about was a base period. What exactly is that this is how far back we look when you when you're filing a claim so the dates here if a claim was to be filed next week as you can see we're looking at the earnings in 2022. Anything before that anything after that we would not be bringing into the claim. If you needed additional period of time, you we would go as soon as the first quarter of this year. You could go through March 31 anything after that though would not be brought into the claim and again, all this is available online that you can learn more about at your at your own discretion. How much money are we talking here the most you can earn per week is $504 here in the state of New York, but the least amount is $124 per week so that's the range of your benefits. How long does it last claim is open for a year. At that point in time, the most you can receive is 26 weeks of full benefits we also pay partial benefits I'll talk a little bit about that in just a second. So if you say your benefits $400 you get 26 weeks times $400 but if you have one week where you only got $300 it's not user lose it that money stays on your claim. How do you qualify will again, you must have no fault of your employment, you have to be totally out of work, but you have to be looking for work, or able to work. If you are performing some work while you have a claim, we do allow you to do that we want you to stay connected to work by all means, and if you're working under certain amount will only reduce your benefits by 25%. Again, this is all online but if you work under 10 hours in a week for example and you earn under the max rate I referred to, you'll receive all of your unemployment insurance benefits there'll be no reduction. Again, we want you to stay connected and we've other resources to talk about there. This is a program that's usually for workers who are, you know, we call w two, not 1099 so that does not mean you should not file a claim if you are seeking benefits. So, there's some bullets here about you know, who is covered and who is not, but the most important point I want to raise is is we will review everything after you file. Same things as you own your own business and you're an officer in your corporation. Again, there's some things that we need to look at but we will review it and the questions you're asking you file your claim. You'll be able to provide that information and determine you know if you'll be eligible or not. And do you want to file you want to file the first full week the first week you're out of work. You have a Monday to Saturday to file that claim. Also, if you missed that week file as soon as you can we can make adjustments to your dates. You don't want to wait though. Okay, so we're going to go online or call and we'll get to that in just a second. Well, what's up on the screen. Obviously you're going to need your phone number your mailing address we will need your social security number. Have your government ID ready when you file. If you're going to go for direct deposit for your benefits make sure you have your banking information when you go online. Otherwise will issue a debit card, and also all of your employer information that's going to be important and especially going back to those periods I talked to about before. So try to have that information. And again, I'm going to be moving ahead in the interest of time but we have some amazing resources that will cover all of that for you. If you do need to come online and file a claim. And how are you going to do that, you're going to go online. There's the website. We've got our phone number, and we have some amazing online resources that will be making available. We have an amazing video that covers everything for a first time customer from from start to finish. We have some new web resources that benefit process bullet there. That's a brand new resource it just came out last week. We think it covers a lot of for everyone whether you filed or not before our socials are there. And then also we do want to remind that we have some career services as well. So maybe about our ID verification process, we do have that. Not everyone is required to go through it. It's a secure third party system, but you're only going to use it if the Department of Labor lets you know that that's something you need to go through. When will you receive your first payment could take up to three to six weeks but again the more information you have at the time you file a claim that that that time can be significantly reduced. Anytime we reach out to you after you file a claim. Please return the information if you get a phone call call us back in the ball then be in our court and you can want to continue to certify each and every week. Okay, and then once you're eligible everything that's due to you will be paid to you. Going back to the beginning wanted to make sure that these websites were known. Again, the top one brings you directly to unemployment insurance resources. And the second link will bring you to our main webpage where we have not just unemployment insurance but a lot of other resources to connect workers to employment during these during these times. So with that, that'll be the end of my presentation again thank you for having us here and we are here to serve you and we're looking forward to helping in any way we can thank you. Thank you Lars. Um, so please post your questions to the question and answer chat box, rather than the webinar chat so that everything is grouped together and then we will pull from those questions towards the end. Next step is Carlos Ortiz Carlos is the assistant commissioner of external affairs for New York City's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, which is formerly the Department of Consumer Affairs DCA. DCWP. DCWP protects and enhances daily economic lives and New Yorkers to create thriving communities. He will speak to freelancer protections and financial empowerment services. Carlos please take it away. Thank you. I'll jump right into it. I can just pull up my screen here. So, can folks see that I think they can. Okay, so the Department of Consumer Worker Protection is the city's leading agency for municipal workplace rights, consumer rights, and free financial empowerment services provided by professionals that are contracted by, by the city. Today, let me speak to you in particular about a couple of things. The first being, New York City's freelance is in free acts. This is a law that was DCWP administers that establishes basic worker protections for freelancers in New York City includes a basic right to rent a contract particularly for agreements over $800, a right to timely payment for freelancers, a right to file a complaint, as well as freedom from retaliation from any hiring party. Now this law applies to all individuals that are hired or retained as independent contractors in New York City, and it also applies to folks regardless of immigration status. What really works is that DCWP works with a freelancer if they have a complaint on resolution and also on legal services navigation. So it's very important, very vital for us that, you know, folks come to us if they have complaints if there's a hiring party that has violated your rights, you can come to us. And what our process is is that we will notify the hiring party of the complaint, we will work with them to try and recover restitution. And if the hiring party does not respond, what we do is we can use that we can provide that information to you for you to bring that to court. And at court you will be able to use the hiring party's lack of response as kind of a rebuttable presumptions what we call it. Essentially it's almost like the case starts off in your favor. Since this law has been in place we've helped close to a thousand New Yorkers recover about $2.7 million in restitution. For us it is essential and vital that workers in New York City, when they're doing the work that they get paid for their work. So we are we're totally committed to facilitating anyone is working in freelance under this law. The next topic that I can jump into if I'm moving quickly. I like to talk to folks about our financial empowerment programs. Now, we offer two principle financial empowerment services one is free financial counseling at our financial empowerment centers. This is one on one counseling with a professional provider that helps you figure out your budget figure out how to, how to, you know, cruise savings during particular times figure out how to reduce your debt during particular times. How can we improve credit and get you connected with really safe and vital formal banking products or formal credit products for us. This is one of our flagship programs at the agency. We encourage folks to go here. Many times, you know, in many circumstances people can build long standing relationships with their financial counselor, and can be particularly helpful in moments when, when you need to work through your finances with with people who trust and rely on the next service I want to really want to talk about is is our New York City free tax prep. This is a year round service where you can get your taxes done for free, and this is also something that's available for individuals for families. It's also available for self employed folks and small businesses. This is an expansion of thanks to Mayor Adams will be offering more of the self employed free tax prep to folks. Our goal is to ensure that that New Yorkers have access to these trusted resources that they can use without a cost. You know, since since some of these programs started we have helped New Yorkers save more than 10 million $10 million. New Yorkers reduced their debt by $93 million. Just last year we're able to help New Yorkers complete 78,000 tax returns for free. And if you think about that in terms of the $100 you might save on a tax for pressure on a tax prepares fees. It really is very. I think something that's very vital for for folks to take advantage of should they should they want to take it should they want to use those resources. I know I know I'm on limited time so I'll hand it over to the next presenter, but I'll be sure to drop also some some connections that you can make to our agency in the chat as well. Thank you very much. Thank you so much Carlos. Two partners from SPS Leonard battle, as well as Aaron cover rubious Leonard is the director of community partners programs for New York City's department of small business services. Aaron cover rubious is the director of media and entertainment training so the department of small business services offers a wide variety of free and high quality services to help New Yorkers start operate and grow small businesses and connect to good jobs. Today they will speak directly to workforce training programs. Thank you sorry. It's telling me that I'm not able to share. Yeah, got it. Thank you. Well I put my presentation up I just want to take a second to share to thank mom to put in this together for having us here. I am I'm going to be as some director of training for media entertainment at SPS, and I would like to share some of the resources that we have for New Yorkers one of them is a meeting New York post production training program. This is a training program. We offer in partnership with mom that six to train and get access provide access to New Yorkers to the post production industry. This is a six week full time training where participants learn the basics of everything about around post production, including the software that is usually used in the industry standard photo editing video photo video editing sound design color correction and visual effects software. The training also includes some skills that post production professionals often need including financial coaching, legal primer marketing themselves, particularly for project based workers. You see some of the job titles that some of the other graduates from this program access right after this program like post production system, post production coordinator and so forth. We partner with Brooklyn workforce innovation to implement this this this program you see some of the eligibility requirements in here. I'm going to emphasize that these and all of the information is and will be available in the web in our website and of course you'll have access to it during and after this this presentation. At NYC dot gov slash sbs. We just started training for our last or for most recent cohort this Monday, but we plan to offer our next cohort in in September beginning of September. If you are someone you know is interest, please visit our website early August, which is when we start recruiting for the next cohort. The first, the first step on the recruitment process is to attend an info session online and all the information will be posted on our website by by then. I want to hand it over to my colleague learner who will be talking about or work for one career centers. Thank you Aaron, and thank you for having us here today to share this information. So the New York City Department of Small Business Services overseas and manages the public employment system that is known under the brand of workforce one. In those centers we have 18 of them across the five boroughs. And you can see here from the numbers here that we do serve quite a bit of New Yorkers who are looking to connect to job opportunities in our centers if you are 18 years of age or older. You are a New York City resident and you are eligible to work in the United States, you can utilize the services at our center. What do we offer. We offer job seeker preparation services which includes specialized and general workshops. We have resource room computers available for folks that want to do independent job searches, and we even more recently offer financial counseling which is all free of charge at our workforce one career centers as well. We also can provide you with one on one career advisement, and that would include creating what is known as an individualized employment plan, which is your roadmap from where you are to getting to the goal of seeking employment. We also at the very end of all of that, hope that we can successfully connect you to employment, which is the ultimate goal and in some cases, as my colleague just shared about the specific media training program. We have other trainings that are available if someone is looking to make a career change to go into a different sector or industry. We will work with you in order to facilitate that as well. Aaron, can you go to the next slide. Thank you. How do I connect to workforce one, you can do it two ways. Generally, you can do it online. We will definitely make the link available for everyone to be able to do so you would click. Once you go to the website here you see the page you click on the register now. Once you've registered with us at workforce one you are now eligible to utilize and access any and all of the services that we provide to New York City job seekers. And once you've registered, you can actually participate in workshops either online virtually or in person and our centers are now continuously bringing more individuals back into the centers in person. Now that we are sort of coming out of the reality of the pandemic, but you can certainly communicate with us online as well. So workforce one is here to help any job seeker who is looking to access job seeker preparation services, as well as connect to a training or and or job opportunities. And I want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to share this information with you. We're here to help and serve you. Thank you. Thank you, Leonard and Aaron. Next up we have Barbara Davis along joining joining Barbara, our Lillian and Galena director work workplace initiatives and patch squadron career counselors supervisor Barbara Davis is our cheap operating officer for the entertainment community fun formally known as the actors fund. Thank you and I apologize in advance. I have a bit of laryngitis. So I'm going to let Lillian and patch to most of the talking. First, I just want to familiarize people, the entertainment in the entertainment community fund is a national nonprofit human service organization for everybody that works in performing arts and entertainment. And we are going to talk a little bit about our social services, mental health services and emergency financial assistance, and patches going to cover the career center. I do want to mention that in addition to those areas. We also do a lot of work around helping people access health insurance when they're uninsured through our artists health insurance resource center. This is providing direct medical care to the performing arts and entertainment community through the Friedman health center for the performing arts. This is a health, a health center primary and specialty care that we run in partnership with Mount Sinai. So these are all Mount Sinai physicians for anyone in the industry was uninsured. They can be seen at our health center for $40 a visit. So if you're interested in new primary care doc, take a look at our website and you can learn more about it. Lily, I'm going to turn it over to you. Great, thank you. I hope folks can see me. Thank you so much for having us here today. And as part of the services that we offer at the entertainment community fund is really that social support network that we're hoping that anybody in performing arts and entertainment knows about I want to say, I don't remember said it, but we're formerly the actors fund. So that's more familiar to you. We're the same people were the same organization, just with a new name change to better reflect all the people that we serve in the industry. We have four main areas social survey social services housing healthcare and career development and support. When it comes to social services, you know, thinking about the financial impact that many folks in performing arts and entertainment might be experiencing right now as a result of this strike. We have some emergency financial assistance, our eligibility you can find on our website at entertainment community.org. But we do need to show that somebody has worked professionally in the performing arts industry for three out of the last seven years, and that we have yearly earnings eligibility that we look at as well so we encourage everyone to go to our website take a look and see we offer one time emergency financial grants and times of financial hardship. So please take a look at our website and see if you may be eligible is part of our social services we talked all of the great resources today here have talked about getting that work support and financial support. I just want to mention the impact that it has on ones mental health and one state of being and we just want you to know that we do have support for you in that way so we offer mental health assessments and referrals crisis support support groups, daily mindfulness and all types of different wellness supports in that way to help you navigate the emotional and the mental health challenges that come about during this time. There's a lot of unknowns right now and moving forward and we want to be that support that that can help you with that. We also have some specific member assistance programs for some entertainment unions that allow you to access some additional supports that includes some ias local 52. The wardrobe union local 6764 and hair and makeup I a local 798. We also have a member assistance program with the musicians local 802 and the United Scenic artists 829 so I know that those unions have all been impacted by this writer strike and want to make sure that they're aware that we do have that member assistance programs specifically for you. So we encourage you to reach out for social services for emergency assistance and to access our programs around self care and mental health during this time. And for to learn a little bit more about career and job development support during this as well I'm going to send it over to patch. Hi, the magic worked. So great to hear from everyone else as well because a lot of what happens at the fund is really looking at the, the whole world of the arts worker. And so as part of your support system, you want to take advantage of the career center as well. And at the career center, we offer a variety of career management workshops everyone is welcome to attend. You can find a founder, pick a workshop, including an upcoming bi weekly job search, search workshop focusing specifically on developing income sources during a strike or during a pause. So it's, we're really looking at what are your needs in terms of generating income at a time when your work sources has been stopped. Needless to say maybe but I want you to know our are at no cost to you the fund does it's fundraising so that we can be a resource to you. The first step is to attend a virtual orientation there Mondays and Wednesdays. And also, look at our workshop calendar I'll put the links in the chat. You can also find all this by going on the website. The webinar and careers and content creation will be presented on Wednesday, May 31. So you might want to find that on the calendar and sign up all our programs are remote via zoom at this point. So, happy to answer any other questions but I will put these links in the chat right now. Thank you patch. And we did put into the chat, the, our stretching your dollar document so it's a really wonderfully put together document on stretching your dollar during times like this. So please take a look at it. That's it for us. Thank you. Thank you to our partners at the entertainment community fun. And the next step. Last but not least rounding out this panel is Raphael Espinall as executive director of the freelancers hub. I want to say a little bit about the freelancers hub. It's a community space designed to help New York City's freelancers thrive that provides free educational workshops, legal and financial clinics benefits assistance and community events and Raphael can certainly speak more to that. So thank you so much and I want to thank mom and thank the commissioner, putting together this very important webinar with the freelancers hub, you know understand that while people are unemployed or under or underemployed. They often turn to independent work freelance work as a way to substitute their income or make some extra revenue. So with the freelancers, we are a co-working space, a free co-working space that has been sponsored by Mo in which you are able to come in, book a desk through our website at freelancers hub.nyc and be able to co-work for free. It's really an opportunity for you to sit down, orient yourself, meet other people who are performing independent work and also have direct access to our staff will be able to help you orient you as you perform freelance work. We'd like to focus on education because we understand that a lot of freelancers are often exploited and taken advantage of. So we ensure that you have all the proper tools and education you need to ensure that you're protected, especially around non payment. As you heard earlier DCWP is the agency in charge of enforcing the Freelances and Free Act. So we as an organization really do the work to ensure that you are working with the contract, making sure that the end of the job you're getting paid on time and if they don't pay you on time that we we operate as a resource that you can lean to in case that happens. But also at the hub outside of having a free desk in which you're able to come in use. We also provide programming. That programming is done about twice a week. And it covers a whole bunch of different topics from as simple as learning how to write a contract to as little more comprehensive to understanding the different clauses within contracts and making sure that those contracts you work with are bulletproof. But also to help you up skill, you know, if you're if you're looking for for work outside of your current profession or outside of your current skills. We offer classes on for example, how to turn your writing school skilled into marketing skills, how to turn your writing skills towards journalism. We have real professionals come in and teach those classes. And again, we see ourselves as a place of resource as a place of education, and it's also as a place in which can help you orient yourself and expand your opportunities while you're going through this difficult time. So again, we are at freelancers hub.nyc. We have our space in industry city Brooklyn doors are open Monday through Friday, nine to five. And if you go on our site you'll see we'll have desks available for you, which are able to use so we encourage you turn to us we're here to help. Thank you. Thanks so much Rafael. Okay, we wanted to remind everyone that this webinar will eventually be posted on YouTube. So at the conclusion of the webinar you will have access to the webinar on YouTube. We will spend the remaining the remaining hour to answering questions are quite quite quite a bit of questions here. We're going to get to as many as possible. So bear with us. Okay, let's start with going to actually a lot of them have to do with unemployment benefits so let's start with the first one listed here. So this is for Lars Lars, I believe. There you are. So this is from Ryan Mencuso. Hello, if I'm an actor who cannot afford work because of the WGA strike, am I eligible for UI. I am a member of SAG after who was not on strike, I received a letter asking to explain the work stoppage. And the questions didn't make sense, given the situation since I'm not on strike, but the strike is affecting my ability to book work. So is he eligible. Well, so, you know, clearly I will individual determination don't believe I can be able to do over the webinar here but as far as surrounding this situation, it sounds that perhaps and this is something I can expand for those interested. If you have, if you have not filed the claim, unless you are yourself a striking writer, meaning you yourself are out of work because you are involved directly with the strike. I think I saw this question somewhere else in the chat. Your reason for separation would be a lack of work slash lay off. Okay, so it sounds that that information was probably sent to you as a result of the answer that the system obtained. You'd want to return that as to my earlier point, indicating you yourself are not on strikes and that you know your work had ended because of everything surrounding that so that's the most succinct way for me to answer that question. I also covered the rest of the topic surrounding those that have been impacted by the strike. So, again, if you yourself are not on strike and you are surrounding this, your separation, unless you said I'm quitting or you said you know go ahead and find, you know, it would be a lack of work. So that's the question relating to the week of benefits. This is from an anonymous attendee. The film industry has been very slow since January 2023. The projections didn't want to start up to be to be only shut down by the may may strike. Many people have been on unemployment for a few months already. What happens if we run out of the 26 week of benefits, are there additional benefit options. Yeah. Thank you for that question. So at this point in time, New York State only administers our base state program which is the 26 weeks of benefits extended benefits are only available. When the overall economy as a whole enters into difference difference they're not impacted industries unfortunately. So there are no extended benefits at this time. And once if you are within your benefit year, and the 26 weeks have been exhausted for our current program right now what we're at the, you know, New York State Department of Labor are able to offer is, you know, you have that benefit you would need to run out and then you could refile relatively but there are no extensions in place at this time at the state or the federal level. But Lars they're able to refile which means they can free up the benefits through refiling. That's over. So you're with your claim. If you began a claim in March of 2022, it's now past March of 2022 so you could file a new claim but if you have a claim that is good until August of 2023, and that claim the 26 weeks are out. You have to wait till after August 2023. That's that that's unfortunately that that's our program, our base program works, and that's the current program that we're in. Okay, there are quite a few questions related to loan out escores things like that. I'm so many, many film workers are paid through their own escort how does that affect their benefits while they still get paid. So that's something I tried to touch upon earlier in the slide and I can touch a little bit more about that. That's something you're you will need to disclose during the application process. And the question we ask specifically is, have you been an officer of any corporation within the last 18 months for those folks, you know, it would tend to be the answer would be yes so that's something that, you know, we will flag and review as part of the claims review process. That's a very nuanced area here. It is one though that I can speak to that we are taking very seriously in considering the gravity and the magnitude of what we're going through now and the time so again, there's no patent answer yes or no at this point, but it is something that you know the first part has to do with the wages we talked about a little bit you know whether you are paying into the system. Obviously, most people that are members of an escort version are paying quarterly taxes are paying unemployment insurance taxes on themselves right so that part is at least covered, but there are other parts, and we just don't have enough time to get specifics of the law, where we'd have to review that. So it's just going to be important that you provide that information upfront and that that you're responsive during the process so that we can ultimately determine if you would ultimately be eligible there are conditions of the law that allow for both sides. I can't just make a pat answer of yes or no. But we're understanding that that is definitely a part of this situation, and it's one that we were taking very seriously and we have additional eyes laid on it as well. So we're trying to make sure that you know that this group is when these claims come in we are focusing on these answers and criteria to provide best service. Got it so there it's many of this is case by case on specific to the specific situation of each, each worker. This also applies to questions about 1099 versus w w to I think this is a w to yes so um, can you speak to that. Well, will they qualify either or W to work W to worker 1099. So, yep, thank you for bringing that up. I think we talked a little bit about that. So, again, it can depend on the type of 1099 it can depend you know did you elect to be on a 1099 or was that just something that the, the job you were on before gave to you because then there could be a question of really what's that level of engagement there it is case by case. One thing I'll speak to is you know, we did have a program here in New York and also through the rest of the country as little back as 2020 correct, called the through the cares act where a lot of 1099 workers were covered because of the program that was being offered. You know, prototypically, we have 150 to 200,000 workers in our regular UI program per week, during the height of the recession because 1099 workers were covered we had over 4 million at a time so there are there's some recency going through the population about 1099 workers and eligibility for prior to the pandemic that was typically no but we always reviewed it so I don't want to discourage anyone who's listening to this in your situation for going I'm 1099 forget I'm out, but that's not what we're saying. We will review it and need to review it. And you know when you file your claim you provide all the employment and again or if you're working for yourself you let us know that if you're working for employers. Let us know that and you'll indicate that it was 1099 and we'll need to review that. So, it's not again a binary yes or no, but we are in a prototypical regular unemployment insurance there's a different set of laws so any decision we make will be based on that criteria. It now in 2023, not from the programs that were federally funded from back in 2020 or 2021 I'm happy to go a little more into that but because I know that's a lot of people's minds. You know, the bottom line is is if you're if you're seeking benefits please file the claim and let us make the decision okay because you want to protect your rights. That's the most important thing. Clear that's clear please apply on everyone who can apply please apply. That's that's that's the message. I want to make sure that we're covering other questions related to other agencies. Again the majority of these are unemployment benefit related, but let's see. Let's first office notify other agencies to look out for people working in the entertainment business, for example, HR a administration one shot deal financial assistance and food stamps. So, we do have a resource page. I will put that in the chat. There's a list of resources here that also includes resources related to to human resources administration other administrations within the within the city as well. So, we will also email all registrants attendees of today's webinar with a follow up email with links to that page and other resources mentioned today so we will stay in communication so please look out for an email and related to all resources and links mentioned today and today's webinar. Okay. Other questions here. Again, I'm looking for maybe not other non you I questions. See, most of them are you I am. So that's already done. Let's go back. Let's see. This is from Vanessa rod. What happens if your unemployment benefits are exhausted and your benefit years still active. Yeah, that that was a scenario I was touching brief them before but I'll gladly go in more detail with that yeah at that point if if if your benefit years still active, but the maximum amount of the 26 weeks worth of benefits has been paid out. Then then that's what it is at this point in time it comes to regular unemployment insurance and you'd have to wait till after that benefit year to refile. And then we can take a look at continued eligibility for a new benefit year. That was answered. Some workers who have lost jobs in the film TV protection industry, due to the WGA strike are also officers of their own corporations. So many of these corporations are tied exclusively to providing services to the film TV production industry. As such these corporations are earning no income. Can you offer, can an officer in such a corporation still qualify for unemployment insurance. It's potentially based on the type of corporation and after you know review it so I can't give a blanket yes or no question but you know the reason ability of what level of activities are going on is something we take into consideration and apply. You know existing case law and policies to so. Yeah, not saying yes but definitely not saying no and if you would like to know, please don't wait to apply and we'll get into it. That was actually answered. Yes. This is a fairly, fairly long question. Also relating to benefits of someone needs to show active income to apply for an apartment. However, due to what's happening is dealing with lack of work and is currently freelancing to make deadlines. Is there any assistance actually this is dead. I think to everyone in the group. Is there any assistance that can be given or resources to take advantage of that will explain to a landlord the full situation and not have a negative impact on one's application moving forward. Okay, so this is specific to rent and housing. Would anyone have an answer. I can just say there's not an easy answer for that question. We do run some people are aware, a regular finding affordable housing in New York City workshop, and we also run a second word and that's really about affordable housing subsidized housing. So using New York City's housing connect program with regards to the open market. We also have a seminar about that. So take a look at our website. We do have housing specialists, but I can tell you that what they're going to look at is what your annual income is but there are many private landlords are going to want to see current income at that time. But I would encourage people to attend one of those workshops and talk to our staff about ideas around securing housing during this time. If you are receiving unemployment insurance benefits are going to prove for unemployment insurance benefits. We do as part of our business actually are asked for times to provide that verification notices, which we can provide if that if you fit in that criteria, you know that to show something if you're connected to UI, and you can actually request that directly off of our webpage now, and, and that can be done via self service. We actually do offer that now so for whatever that's worth from the UI side, that is something that people do ask of us and we provide for these types of situations to whatever that's worth. Okay, next question. This is actually ECF specific. If you've only served for less than the five years that is a requirement to be eligible for ECF Entertainment Community Fund. Are the references and a cover letter that can be submitted for review. I think I can take this one. We definitely want you to go ahead to our website and take a look and give us a call or reach out or complete an application online for that eligibility. In terms of having worked professionally for three years out of the past seven with income guidelines is specifically for our to apply for our emergency financial assistance. Our supports around mental health, career support, all of those other things we talked about our housing workshops are financial wellness program is all self identified if you are have been working professionally in the industry yesterday last year that's fine. And we welcome you to participate in our supportive services to learn specifically about those guidelines and eligibility criteria for our one time emergency financial assistance it's all laid out on our website. And you can also just give us a call and we'll talk to you directly about it. We're available and we're staffed with social workers that can speak to you about your specific needs link you to other resources and supports and talk to you about your unique situation. I'm going to go back to the questions related to food stamps and food banks. Yes, the city does offer support for food banks and food pantries and as well as more information on food stamps. So I'm going to put the link to your resource page in the chat. There's a link to access New York City. It's a city run portal for New York City residents to determine their eligibility for more than 30 economic programs and benefits. There's also a link to community food connection, which provides groceries to cook at home community kitchen so it's all here on this page so stand by I'm going to put this in the chat. It's a resource page. And the Episcopal Actors Guild has a food pantry as well so there are food related support within the city. So, all right, making sure that we're getting to as many questions as possible within this. The few minutes that we have. Let's see. Actually, that was answered. Okay. All right. I have a question about the difference between, is there a difference, is there a legal difference in regards to unemployment between a furlough and layoffs can employees who are furloughed collect unemployment. Yes, there really is no difference. The only thing that may impact when you could begin, potentially is if you were furloughed and receive some type of severance package or you know, leave pay. That's just something we'd ask you about during the application process but no there is no, you know, there is no period. One thing I wanted to mention, you know, in the event of a strike, you know, striking workers are eligible for unemployment after the 14 day labor. It's not that the only so you have to wait for that but a furlough it's the same as a layoff there's no, there's no legal difference. Okay, here's the question to your small small business services partners, are there any benefits slash resources for small entertainment businesses, retaining their staff during the strike. And this could be for anyone actually but are there any benefits resources for small entertainment businesses retaining their staff during the strike. I'm going to try and speak to that I'm not sure that we have resources for helping folks to retain their staff. If they're thinking about grant money that was available during the pandemic. That wasn't necessarily city money that was money funneled through the city, but we don't have specifically funding like that that would help them to sustain staff. We can point them to financial resources that are traditional such as, you know, lending institutions and that sort of thing to sort of access funding that way. And we would actually help them through our business services to actually put together a package and, you know, walk them through the process but as far as having the ability to give them funding to keep maintain their staff. I would not have that. And actually, I can jump in. I so you know if you're a business and you're looking to do things for your workers, New York State does offer what's called a shared work program, which is as a business, you can sort of keep your employees engaged they can collect unemployment insurance, but at a reduced level while still maintaining benefits and things like that. I should put some of my stuff in earlier but I did put a thing in the chat so if you're looking to maybe keep your force maybe shared work might be something you're looking to as well that we don't have to out now lay folks off and you can keep them engaged in a partial schedule. So there's some information there. Thank you. All right, we're going to make sure to let's let's take a couple more questions. All right, this is from Megan stone, what if you've been collecting from a different state, and it has run out can you now collect from New York since you have also worked in New York. Great question. If you've exhausted your benefits in another state. You can file here and there we have a, we deal a lot with other states obviously especially from the tri state area, or people in this industry who work across the country and the world. So you can file your claim here. There may be some verification you have in fact exhausted but that is a possibility so you should file that you know determine what your eligibility would be here if you have exhausted. Let's see. Okay, this is a very specific question. When do we start with the new rules. When do we start a start a new claim at the week when we are terminated or the following week, or after one week of being fully unemployed. For example, Wednesday the 17th was my last day of work. When do I call in to start a claim. Gotcha. If the separation occurs in the middle of the week that my question would usually then be how much was there in earnings for the work you performed in that week. If it was over the statutory limit of $504 we can't give you unemployment or any credit for unemployment in the in a week that you meet that threshold. So in that case it would be the following week that you would you would file for the claim to start it and then start the waiting week and everything like that so that does happen we asked questions during the claims filing process about that. So the system will will know, you know, based on your answers if that pertains to you but you know these midweeks, it can happen and then would just be a matter of us getting in down the road of determining the proper start date to the claim and then going through the eligibility review after that. Okay. Okay, we're coming to the end of the webinar I just wanted to mention that there was a question about health insurance. I think Barbara answered it, but how do you, what health insurance Elise, can you offer through ECF health insurance options. We, we don't offer health insurance we are navigators for the New York state of health. So what we can do is help people identify what kind of insurance they need. And where they fit and help enroll them into best insurance plan for their needs. As well we can provide general health insurance counseling address problems with insurance. And as I said before we also have a health center for people in the arts. Thank you for that Barbara. Okay. So this was this was such a comprehensive discussion and offer of support. I really hope that this was helpful for for all that attended today. Again, we will have this available on YouTube this webinar we will also follow up with each register registrant with a list of resources mentioned today. We are here to support our workers. So we understand the situation that we're that you're all in so please stay tuned. As we're hoping in the future there may be there may be more webinars and information of support to our panelists. Thank you. If you have any last thoughts, please, please share them. Otherwise, we will continue to stay in touch and. Everyone please hang in there and be on the lookout for for more information. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you everyone. Thank you.