Here is a quick “snapshot” that succinctly describes how the California EDD has made me feel today:
On December 20, 2011, the California EDD sent me a letter. It was not a benefit check (because the state of California has ceased to issue checks, and has become slightly more modernized. It now issues benefit payments through what basically is a form of debit card). It was not a continued claim form, either.
Immediately, I became anxious. This is the usual effect that letters from the EDD have on me. I find myself unintentionally holding my breath, until it hurts, and I have to start breathing again. I can feel my blood pressure rise just by holding the unopened letter in my hand.
This particular letter, which arrived days before Christmas, started with a phrase that was in bold and in all caps. It said:
NOTICE OF UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE CLAIM FILED”
The rest of the form looked like the ones that the EDD sends out when it is preparing to schedule a mandatory telephone interview with you. It continued with:
“You filed a claim for Unemployment Insurance benefits effective 12/11/2011″.
No, actually, I didn’t. My original claim ran out, and I attempted to file for a new claim. Unfortunately, that was a complete failure.
The EDD website requires a person who has found some employment to list the street address of their employer. I am a freelance writer who gets paid to write content for websites. The clients who hire me only have a P.O. Box. That made it impossible for me to get the form on the EDD website to comprehend what I was telling it. Therefore, I never actually applied for a second round of Unemployment Insurance benefits.
Somehow, though, the EDD decided to just go ahead and award me more benefits. I never asked for it. I never signed up for it. It was something bestowed upon me.
Naturally, I have been suspicious that this would lead to something horrible happening, sometime down the road, as a result.
So, when I got this letter from the EDD, (days before Christmas), I immediately believed that it indicated that I was going to be forced to suffer through yet another God forsaken telephone interview. My anxiety level increased.
My husband, perhaps trying to look at the bright side of things, suggested that maybe this letter didn’t mean that there would be a telephone interview at all. Maybe it was just something they sent out as acknowledgement that they understood that they spontaneously decided to renew my claim?
In a separate envelope, that arrived on the same day, was what appeared to be something similar to a continued claim form. Except, this form was missing some very important information. Specifically, the part that I was supposed to fill out, and send back to the EDD, was completely blank. Obviously, this didn’t bode well for me.
This particular, empty, continued claim form came with the same little perforated part at the top. This time, it said: “NO BENEFITS ARE PAYABLE (during this week) BECAUSE YOU HAVE REPORTED EXCESSIVE EARNINGS.”
I have not received any Unemployment Insurance benefits since then. I did receive one, normal looking, continued claim form after that, (sometime last week). It is due to be sent back soon.
Today, I got another letter from the EDD. This one also was not a check, and it wasn’t a continued claim form, either. At the top of this letter, in bold, and in all caps, it said:
“NOTIFICATION OF UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE BENEFITS ELIGIBILITY INTERVIEW”
In plain English, this means that my suspicions were correct. I have been assigned ANOTHER God forsaken telephone interview with the damned California EDD!
For those of you who haven’t followed this blog from the very beginning, here is a quick re-cap:
* On October 28, 2009, I had my first mandatory telephone interview with the EDD. They give people a window of two hours that you are required to wait by your telephone for them to call.
Instead, the EDD Minion named “Alphonso” decided to make me anxiously wait through the entire assigned timeframe, and then called me five minutes after that time had ended. By the end of the phone call, I was driving downtown so that I could fax “Alphonso” the letter I got from my teaching job that officially said that my job had ended. This cost me about $4.00.
* The second God forsaken telephone interview happened on April 2, 2010. In other words, about five months after the first telephone interview.
This time, I was called by a Minion of the EDD named “Margaret”, who actually called during the two hour assigned time span. “Margaret” wanted to know when I started freelance writing. She wanted to make sure that I was not writing a book, and appeared happy to learn that I was writing content for other people’s websites.
She asked me questions about my previous employer (a public school), and the one before that (retail hell). She asked if I was offered “full time work” if I would take it. Of course, I said that I would.
Overall, it appeared that “Margaret” was here to subtly convince me to give up writing, and go back to selling memberships at a big chain bookstore. The only good part of this entire conversation was when she assured me that I would start receiving benefit money again, (and she turned out to be accurate about that).
* The third God forsaken telephone interview happened on June 8, 2010. In other words, about two months since the previous one.
This time, an EDD Minion named “Michael” decided to call me ten minutes before the assigned timespan would run out. “Michael” did not seem to have the slightest understanding of what the word “freelance” meant.
The main purpose of this call was so “Michael” could ask me why I was no longer working for a part-time job that I spent a few months trying to do. To make a long story short… being dyslexic, and attempting to keep all the numbers and letters straight for hours at a time while answering phones… doesn’t work. I ended up telling “Michael” the truth, which was that I didn’t make it through the training.
This particular God forsaken telephone call was shorter than the previous two. That is, until Minion “Michael” called me back. He wanted to know the exact date I stopped working for the company I was answering phones for. Again, this phone call happened in June, and I stopped working for that company in December. The EDD is not quick to pick up on things, it seems.
*As a side note, on June 23, 2010, the EDD sent me a letter saying that, due to their mistake, they overpaid me. The letter said that I now owed them $340.00. To make a long story short, we went through their entire appeals process, but they refused to change their minds. I ended up paying them back $340.00.
* The fourth God forsaken telephone interview happened the very next day, on June 24, 2010. This time, the Minion of the EDD wasted the entire first hour of the two hours of time they scheduled, before managing to call me.
I don’t recall the name of this particular Minion, only that she was female, had a thick asian accent, and was a big, fat, liar. She started harassing me about the part time job that Minion “Michael” asked me about in the previous telephone interview.
To make a long story short, this Minion insisted that the EDD didn’t know that I had stopped working for that company. She tried to say that I failed to make a note of that when I filled out an online form for a new claim, by using a drop down box. The problem with her statement was that I never went online to make a new claim. I simply filled in the continued claim forms that the EDD continued to send me.
Next, she insisted that I didn’t write down that I had stopped working for that company on my continued claim forms. I knew, for certain, that I had, so I insisted that she send me a copy of the forms she was referring to. Eventually, she revealed that she actually didn’t have a copy of those particular forms.
Her next tactic was to start asking me how I got “fired”, (which would have led them to cancel my claim). The thing is, I was never fired. I simply didn’t make it through the training process. I made absolutely certain that I corrected her each time she used the word “fired”. I’m not sure what circle of Hell this nasty Minion of the EDD came from. She was definitely more evil than the previous ones I was forced to do a telephone interview with.
This catches things up to today. I have been assigned what will be my fifth telephone interview with the EDD. It will take place on January 3, 2012, sometime between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. There is no way to know what questions I will be asked this time. There is no way to know how nasty the EDD Minion will chose to be. There is no way to know what it is, exactly, that they want.
Each and every time they do this to me, I get upset. My anxiety level rises to the point where I am experiencing “fight or flight” symptoms. My heart races, I start to sweat, and I start having trouble breathing. I will have nightmares every time I sleep between now, and when that God forsaken telephone interview is over and done with.
And then, I will worry that the EDD is using this telephone call as a reason to tell me that they want me to pay a random amount of money back to them, again, like they did once before. This cannot possibly be good for my health.
So, I have decided that I am going to tell whatever Minion of the EDD that calls me that I want to quit. I want them to cancel my benefits, to leave me alone, and to trouble me no more.
One would think that would be an easy thing for the Minion, whomever he or she turns out to be, to comprehend. However, my experience so far with the Minions of the EDD leads me to believe that this particular government institution seeks to hire employees who have comprehension disorders. I’m anticipating that I will have to fight to make all this nonsense, stress, and harassment stop, forever.
Tags: EDD, Unemployment Insurance
Hang in there. Don’t let them win. Remember, you have done nothing wrong. You have done no thing wrong. I like your lithographs!