So much for that idea!
Yesterday, I was expecting to get one of my Unemployment Insurance checks. They come every two weeks, and I had been filling out and sending all the continued claim forms on time, as requested. Yesterday, Monday, February 8, 2010, should have been the day the check arrived.
Except that it didn’t.
Instead, I got an envelope from the EDD that didn’t look anything like the ones that the checks arrive in. I knew this couldn’t be a good thing. As I walked back from the mailbox, I was convinced that this was the “letter of doom” I still believe I’m going to someday receive. I was certain this was the letter telling me that they decided to cut off my Unemployment Insurance benefits, due to some loophole they found that would cheat me out of what was, in reality, my money.
Instead, I got what looked like a continued claim form. Attached to it was NO CHECK! None at all. Needless to say, I was not at all impressed.
The little perforated part at the top, which usually has reasonably understandable information printed on it said this:
“This is a duplicate claim form. On your original form, the “total hours worked” (6B) was incomplete or incorrect. The “total hours worked” each week is required regardless of how you are paid. Please complete the entire form. Sign and mail immediately but no later than 2-18-10.”
Now, I was confused. I was pretty sure that the big blue booklet didn’t say anything about writing down the number of hours I worked. Let’s check that part again. Page 16 says:
“If you receive pay for piecework, report the total amount paid in the week it was earned. Include the word “piecework” in item 6b along with your earnings.”
Nope, I didn’t somehow misread it. This paragraph that mentions “piecework” does not say one word about writing down the total number of hours worked on the form next to where you write “piecework”. Which means that I followed their directions exactly as they wrote them, and still, the EDD felt the need to punish me by withholding my check.
It seems to me that there are more little quirks and loopholes hidden in the rules that govern if and when I can get my Unemployment Insurance checks than one can possibly find simply by reading, and re-reading, the information pamphlets that they send out to you. I believe that these rules are designed specifically so the EDD can prevent people from getting their money. They are supposed to be helping people!
So, what happens now? Well, I’ve already filled out the “duplicate claim form”. I figured out how many hours I worked, (best guess, since freelance writing does not actually pay by the hour), and wrote that down on the form, next to the word “piecework”.
We put it in the mail today. The mail generally arrives here between 3 and 4 PM, which means that I did not have the time to rush through filling out the duplicate claim form and drive like a madwoman down to the post office. But, even if I managed to do that, the duplicate claim form still would not have gotten processed until today, Tuesday February 9, 2010, anyway.
Since the only thing I can count on the EDD to be is “slow”, and since it likes to take at least two weeks to do anything at all, I can be assured of one fact. I will not see the money I was supposed to have in my hand yesterday until possibly Monday, February 22, 2010. This is a guess, because, who knows how long it takes them to process a “duplicate” claim form. That could be an entirely different department, for all I know!
I’ve no idea if I will receive the continued claim form , (and the check that would be attached to it), that I would have expected to receive on February 22, 2010 at all. Will it send me two checks at the same time? Somehow, I highly doubt that.
In other words, despite following their written directions, I am being punished by the EDD. Perhaps someone in their organization hates freelance writers?
Tags: Unemployment Insurance