Look what I got in my mailbox today!
This looks to be the “UI Claim Materials” mentioned after I filed for Unemployment Insurance online. Click here to read my step by step guide of what you need to do to receive your very own packet of “UI Claim Materials”.
Let’s see what’s inside!
* One blue pamphlet that says “Unemployment Insurance: A Guide to Benefits and Employment Services”
* One smaller and thinner pink pamphlet that says “To Find A Job use CalJOBS”
* An official looking data sheet from “Orange County Call Center” with all sorts of numbers on it that I am going to have to decipher later on tonight sometime. My best guess is that this letter says something about how much money I might get, weekly, as Unemployment Insurance.
* Another official looking data sheet from “Orange County Call Center” with more numbers and data. It is my best guess that this is the form that says they know I have filed for Unemployment Insurance. I’m pretty sure I need to do something with these forms, but, at first glance, I know not what.
If I have any questions, I can call the EDD, and talk to them in English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, or talk to them through TTY, or so it says at the top of these official looking letters. I speak some of those, so this may actually be helpful!
I also received a separate official looking letter that wants me to fill it out. It’s got this week’s dates on it, and next week’s dates on it. It wants to know things like, “Were you too sick or injured to work?”. It asks if there was any reason I did not accept work, other than being too sick or injured. Did I look for work? Did I refuse any work? Did I begin any kind of school or training? I think I’m going to see one of these forms in my mailbox every week, for me to fill out all over again.
As I read that form, I feel like I am being accused of intentionally sitting on the couch and eating bon bons, instead of having a job. I’m also feeling a mixture of relief that this arrived, and I can get started with this, and despair, that yes, I am officially one of the unemployed masses. It’s real, now.
Guess I’ve got some homework to do to figure out what to do with all of this. One thing I will say is that this arrived today, October 1, 2009, and I filed for Unemployment Insurance on September 25, 2009. It did, in fact, arrive “within ten days”, and I do not need to go find the number to call if it was late. One headache I do not have to have as a result of losing my job.
Tags: Flickr, Unemployment Insurance