Finally, after 38 days of mostly ignoring me, I am finally getting somewhere with the EDD. Today in the mail two interesting things arrived.
One was a form letter letting me know my pin number has been changed. Yes, I know that. I was the one who changed it. I did that on the day I couldn’t get through on the phone to anyone at the EDD, and was completely frustrated. I remember learning by phone, from an electronically recorded voice, that there wasn’t any check at all expected to arrive for me at any time. I remember getting even angrier about being told that there wasn’t a check in the mail, coming to help me, after all. So, it is quite vivid in my memory that yes, I did, in fact, change my pin number, thank you very much.
The other piece of mail from the EDD was something I never thought I would see in my lifetime. I was convinced these things simply did not exist. This letter contained an actual check from the EDD. Here, in my hands, was my first glimpse of my Unemployment Insurance benefits! I couldn’t believe it. I still don’t believe it. I’m half expecting the check to bounce when I attempt to put it in my bank account tomorrow, or for the EDD to send me another letter demanding the money back for some convoluted reason.
Attached to this check is one of those super special Claim forms. This one is called a “CONTINUED CLAIM” form. It covers the week beginning October 11th, 2009 and ending October 17th, 2009. It also covers the week beginning October 18th, 2009, and ending October 24th, 2009. Finally! A super special Claim form for me to send in, so I can continue to receive the appropriate amount of money from the EDD!
Just like the last super special form I was supposed to fill out, this one has a date I am required to mail the form on. It says “November 1, 2009.” Two problems with that. One, November 1, 2009 is, once again, a Sunday. The US mail still doesn’t pick up or deliver on Sundays. Two, this Claim form arrived in my mailbox today, November 2nd, 2009. I suppose the EDD believes I can just jump into my time machine, fire up the flux capacitor, go back in time with this particular Claim form,… and hand it to the mailman before he can, um, deliver it to me?
It bothers me that I cannot simply receive this check, and have a few moments to feel some kind of relief. I cannot think “Thank Goodness, some money arrived! I can pay one part of one bill with this check. That helps a little bit”. The tiny amount of stress that may have disappeared because I finally have had some money come in comes right back to me when I see that I am, through no fault of my own, already a day late in sending back the CONTINUED CLAIM form. That’s just mean!
So, I’m going to fill it out right now, and walk it back to my mailbox tonight, for the mailman to pick up tomorrow afternoon, when he gets here. Either the EDD accepts it, or they don’t. I have no control over that. I have no control over any of this. I absolutely hate being this dependent on the kindness of the US government in order to have a snowball’s chance in hell of paying my bills.
Maybe all my blogging and ranting about how incompetent and despicable the people who work at the EDD are finally, in some cosmic way, got me what I needed. Some people believe that if you just think positively about something you want to have happen, it will cause that very thing to happen for you. If that is true, then the converse must be as well. Perhaps all the rage and anger that I have been directing right back at the people of the EDD who caused it has forced them to finally get off their asses and start helping me. I don’t know. It’s hard to know what to believe anymore, after pretty much losing my mind while trying to deal with the EDD.
This means that I officially have been paid for the week starting September 27th, 2009 and ending October 3rd, 2009, and also for the week starting October 4th, 2009, and ending October 10th, 2009. It took the EDD 38 days to send me my first check. Let’s see how long it takes them to send the second one. Assuming, of course, that any more checks arrive.
Tags: Unemployment Insurance