If only it were only written as you have it, but you left the key phrase “due to COVID” off of the second bullet. I suffered adverse financial consequences as a result of being laid off, but I don’t know what the decision makers knew, when they knew it, nor on what they based their decision. Given three similar businesses in the same block, the first was losing money and was about to announce a permanent closing (regardless of COVID), the second very profitable and having a long history with the community chooses to keep the employees working, while the third marginally profitable elects to lay off employees. All experienced COVID, but other factors were the cause of the layoffs, as clearly they could have chosen to keep the employees working. An IRS audit of the failing business and their unpaid taxes will show that the lay offs were not “due to COVID” and any employee claiming so is subject to penalties and interest (even though they didn’t ‘know’ and had wrongfully assume that their layoff was due to COVID). Some clear examples of “due to COVID” are bars which were closed by regulation. However, many other businesses could have gone virtual or altered their business model to align with restrictions, but instead chose to layoff employees due to other factors (e.g., profitability), not due to COVID.
