I want to be optimistic, and believe that 2010 will be a good year for me, for the rest of the unemployed and underemployed masses, for everyone. 2009 was a roller coaster of a year, and I’m hoping 2010 will be more…. I don’t know… I’m gonna say “tranquil”.
Today, (it’s Sunday, January 3, 2010 as I write this), I “mailed” my first Continued Claim Form of the new year. Yay. It will, of course, be picked up by the US Post Office sometime tomorrow, on Monday, as usual. I get to start off the new year with this reminder that I am, once again, unemployed, and dependent upon the US Government to send me money, so I can pay my bills. Yay. It’s unnerving!
This particular continued claim form did not arrive by itself. No, it arrived on December 26, 2009, (Merry Christmas to me!), with two other scary pieces of mail from the notorious EDD. This claim form was attached to my most recent Unemployment Insurance check, like usual. Something about this check was different, though.
Now, in the past few weeks, I had been listing the number of hours of work I did at my part-time job. In return, the EDD was reducing the amount of my UI checks, which I think has something to do with the amount of money I had earned at the part-time job. I had come to expect checks that were somewhat lower than, say, the first couple of checks I got when I was completely and entirely unemployed.
Wasn’t expecting a check for about twenty five dollars, however!
I, of course, panicked. I tore open the other two envelopes from the EDD, to see if something inside those could explain what was happening to my money. One envelope contained a piece of paper that was almost entirely blank. It looked suspiciously like the claim forms, except that it had almost no information. The little perforated part at the top said something suggesting that I had gone over the limit of the number of hours of work I could claim. What? Nothing ever said there was a limit! How could there be a limit, when I don’t have a full time job?
The third envelope contained a form that looked amazingly similar to the first form I ever got from the EDD. It had the following information:
NOTICE OF UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE CLAIM FILED
You filed a claim for Unemployment Insurance benefits effective 12/13/2009
When you filed your last claim you stated:
1. Your last employer was : (name of the answering service part time job that I used to have).
2. The last day you worked for that employer was 12/18/2009
3. The reason you are no longer working for the above employer is:
STILL WORKING
4. You are not receiving a pension or other income.
5. You are able and available to accept full time work.
It didn’t list statement number six, from the previous form. It seems the EDD has figured out that yes, in fact, I am a US citizen.
What to make of all this? First of all, it took the EDD until December 13, 2009 to understand that I had a part time job, even though I’d been letting them know that on each Continued Claim form I filled out and mailed back to them. I started that job in the end of October, 2009, and it took the EDD about two months to recognize this fact. One problem I immediately saw was that as of December 23, 2009, I no longer was employed at this particular part-time job. I’ve no idea what to do, in terms of this piece of paper. The information is all correct, and it indicated that I am to mail something out to them only if the information is wrong in some way.
I nearly had a panic attack next. What if this perplexing combination of mail means that the EDD decided that, instead of basing the amount of my Unemployment Insurance checks off of the full time job I held for about nine months of 2009, it was now going to instead base it off of this part-time job (that paid less than the full time one did)? I believed, for a while, that this was the EDD’s complex and convoluted way of telling me I was “screwed”. It became hard to breathe as I tried to envision how we were going to survive with me making about twenty-five dollars every two weeks from here on out.
I frantically flipped through the handy Blue Booklet I was sent from the EDD when I first signed up for Unemployment Insurance, (back in September of 2009). The only information I can glean from this is that the EDD is supposed to look at three month increments of this past year, and base my checks from whichever three months had the highest average of earning.
So, why did I get a twenty-five dollar check? I’ve no idea.
Whenever the next check arrives, I will be afraid to open it. The cynic in me believes that by doing exactly what I was asked to do, (continue to look for work, and take work if I can find it), I have messed everything up. I’m scared that the EDD will use this part-time job (that I no longer have), as an excuse to start sending me twenty-five dollar checks from here on out.
The slowly dying optimist in me says that wait, there is still this amount of money listed that is mine to get. The optimist points out that my Unemployment Insurance isn’t supposed to run out until sometime in September, 2010. The optimist says that having the part-time job was good, because it meant I got less money on the UI checks, so the remainder will last even longer than first anticipated by the EDD.
I will let you know who was right, whenever the next Unemployment Insurance check arrives. Assuming, of course, that it does, in fact arrive.
Tags: Unemployment Insurance