About a week ago I got another strange letter from the EDD. It had the EDD official logo where the return address is located. But, my name and address was hand written. Somebody at the EDD took a blue ink pen, and wrote my name and address on the front of this envelope, and sent it to me. It even has a spot where they messed up the zip code, and used white out to cover that mistake, so they could fix it. I thought at first that what I was looking at was that nifty little font that some junk mail comes in now, to fool people into thinking that the envelope of unwanted solicitations was really a letter from an actual person, who they would want to hear from. But, no, the white out means that this was actually a hand written, self address, stamped envelope from the EDD. (And by “stamp”, I mean not an actual stamp like the common people would use… but a stamp from an ink pad that shows the postage was, in fact, paid for.)

What on earth could this be? I opened the envelope, and inside was a single, tri-folded, piece of white paper. Opening that, I realized that the EDD sent me a reciept for the $340.00 they extorted… I mean billed… me for (due to THEIR mistake).

I have continued to receive Unemployment Insurance checks from them, on time, which, naturally makes me wonder what they have up their sleeves this time. I fear another telephone interview is on the way. I have no legitimate reason to have that fear, but, this means nothing, since I didn’t think when I got on Unemployment Insurance that they would force me through four separate telephone interviews, but they did it.

The perforated stubbs on the top of the checks tell me I have around $500.00 left in my Unemployment Insurance claim. I’ve gotten exactly zero information about when, if, or how to renew my claim. I guess I will just have to see what happens.

Most of my writing assignments involve looking up information on the internet. I’ve been using Swagbucks as my search engine, because it gives me “swag bucks” that can be exchanged for free stuff! So far, I have successfully turned in my swag bucks for an Amazon gift certificate (that got exchanged for a World of Warcraft Legends Manga). It’s a nice way to support my “book habit”.

I like the art on the swag bucks. This example shows the SwagBucks Gal:

They had some kind of back to school contest recently, and temporarily changed the art on the swag bucks. I like line work, and the pencil style drawing on these:

If your job has you doing a lot of internet searching, you might want to use Swagbucks instead of Google. Google doesn’t give you free stuff.

There is an option to fight this current decision, but it involved speaking with a judge, and, based on how things have gone when Shawn and I were dealing with a similar situation with his disability benefits years ago, we have decided not to. We talked about this, and decided it just isn’t worth the effort to continue to fight this. The ultimate outcome, it turns out, was decided when they got it into their heads to demand money from me to cover THEIR mistake.

Some of you may recall me writing about what I referred to as the saga of “I want my two dollars”. This was the story about how I had to fight to get my retirement money out of CalPERS, (the organization that holds retirement money of teachers, and other state workers). Finally, I had success, and was able to put this money into my own bank account.

Well, today I can report that all of that money is gone. Some of it went to an unexpected car payment on my 1994 Cavalier. (The door handle on the driver’s side broke. Who knew that could even happen?). More than half of the retirement money, however, will soon be going right back to the State of California, to pay the money that the EDD is demanding from me. The money is gone.

Now, you may remember that there were a whole series of fees involved when I got the retirement money. State taxes, Federal taxes, a fee for taking the money out before I hit retirement age, and… something else I cannot recall at this moment, were all taken out of my retirement money before I could have it. Now, it seems that the EDD has decided to take more than half of what was leftover.

The cynic in me wonders if there is a system set up with CalPERS that automatically alerts the EDD when a person takes out their retirement money, so the EDD can quickly create an excuse to grab most of it right back. It cannot be a complete coincidence that shortly after I was able to get my retirement money out of the State of California that the EDD suddenly makes a mistake “oops” that results in me paying more than half of what I got from CalPERS right back to the State of California.

Some of you already know that I have been working as a freelance writer since January. A few weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to become a blogger for Families.com. I am not an employee; this is still “contract” or freelance work. Overall, it equates to a part time job, and is more regular than what I was doing previous to this opportunity.

So far… I love it! I write for three of their blogs: Insurance, Genealogy, and Deals. It is the Deals blog that I think unemployed people, or people who need to save money, will be the most interested in. Right now, I am writing new articles for the Deals blog five days a week, (and am adding new content daily in each of the other two blogs).

If you want to find out about sales, free offers, contests, and discounts, check out the Deals blog at Families.com. I am not the only contributor to this blog, but I do contribute quite a bit.

From there, you can click on my name and find all the other articles I have written for Families.com if you are interested.

Today, in the mail, I got the results from the EDD that I knew in my heart I would end up getting. I was trying to keep that little spark of hope alive that they would see the error of their ways, but no. The EDD, like many twelve year old children, is not mature enough to accept when it has made a mistake.

It all started when I got a very strange and incomprehensible letter from the EDD a while back. This long letter, as far as I could tell, was to let me know that they decided to re-evaluate the amount of money that I was allowed to have as my Unemployment Insurance Benefit. I have referred to this particular piece of mail as “mystery mail” earlier in this blog. I called it mystery mail because of it’s mysterious nature. I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t suddenly do something different that would cause it to come into existence. I was given no warning that it was coming. I couldn’t find anything on it that clearly stated what, exactly, this information was going to do to me. I continued to get checks from the EDD, (well, except for the time span that they decided to withhold my checks so they could force me through the fourth telephone interview, that is), so from all the observable evidence…. it appeared that the “mystery mail” was just some anomaly that I didn’t need to worry about.

But, worry I did. I do not trust any government agency that is supposedly there to help people to actually do what it should be doing without punishing the people it provides help to in some way. I know this because I have already experienced it. As I mentioned before, my husband was, and still is, getting disability payments because he is legally blind. We have, in the past, had to pay back a bunch of money to the government because THEY made a mistake and “overpaid” us.

It turned out that I had good reason to worry. Arriving in the mail next was a letter from the EDD telling me that because THEY made a mistake, that they decided that I now owe them $340.00. There was a form in that envelope that I could fill out and send back if I wanted to dispute that finding. The cynic in me said “Don’t bother! They are just going to have another EDD worker decided that they are right after all, and I am wrong, and I will end up paying the amount they demand.”

I almost didn’t bother with the form at all. But, after I calmed down a bit, Shawn and I went ahead, filled out the form, and sent it back anyway. Part of me really wanted to believe that the cynic in me was wrong, at least this time, that the EDD would realize that we would have extreme difficulty paying them $340.00, and would stop demanding something that it was obvious we couldn’t pay back. I mean, how many of you reading this blog right now have $340.00 that is sitting in your pocket, that doesn’t need to go toward any of your bills? I doubt many people are that fortunate.

Today, I got a letter in the mail from the EDD that confirmed that I should always listen to my inner cynic, because, even though she can be a bitch at times, she is usually right about what will happen. The EDD, as my inner cynic expected, decided that it was correct after all, and is still demanding the $340.00 back. The EDD decided that paying back this amount of money was not something that was going to cause me “hardship”. Apparently if you are on Unemployment Insurance benefits, and your spouse is getting disability benefits, (and has a part time job), then the EDD thinks that you are rolling in dough, and can send them a bunch of money that you owe them due to THEIR mistake, not your own.
Because, of course, everyone in my situation has tons of extra money to just throw around. And, of course, it’s perfectly morally acceptable to make a mistake, and then demand that someone else pay for your mistake. Note, the sarcasm dripping off of my words.

This new note indicates that if I want to, I can fill out a new form that arrived with the current letter of doom, and try to fight it. I think doing so is only going to have one result: delaying when we start paying back the money they have decided we owe them. Apparently, this is my punishment for losing my job and needing Unemployment Insurance benefits in the first place. I truly wish I never, ever, ever, signed up for these benefits, even though I am entitled to them, (as someone who has paid into the system for half my life).

If I am understanding the new letter of doom correctly, it indicates that in order to fight this, I will have to appear in court. Because, ya know, everyone on Unemployment Insurance Benefits can just rush out and pay for a lawyer, we have so much extra money laying around.

There is also an indication that if I don’t pay them back this money when they want it back, it could lead to litigation. So, now they have moved up from a demand, to outright extortion.

I have not made a decision about what I am going to do next, because I am still irate about the whole situation. When, (if), I calm down, I will decide what my next move is. This is another example of how being on Unemployment Insurance Benefits means you are forced to play a game, that you don’t know any of the rules to, against someone who created the game.

CalPERS, for those of you who don’t know, is the governmental group that holds on to retirement money for state employees, including teachers. When I lost my job as a teacher, I decided that I had no desire to teach ever again. Therefore, I didn’t see any reason to have CalPERS hold on to the money for my retirement. The way I see it, I have already retired from teaching!

Oddly enough, I got something in the mail yesterday regarding my pension at CalPERS. It was in one of those… envelopes, for lack of a better term, where you have to pull off the perforated tabs on both sides and at the bottom in order to open it. On the front, it said : IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR RETIREMENT BENEFITS and emphasized that I should PLEASE REPLY WITHIN 10 DAYS. It looked like it might have been something official. My first thought, of course, was that this was from CalPERS, and the letter inside would tell me that they were demanding that I give my retirement money back to them.

Instead, it turned out to be something that was trying to scare me into filling out a form that asked for a lot of personal information, including how many years I worked as a state employee, what my salary was, what my planned age of retirement would be, and how old I was right now. It even wanted me to list my beneficiary!

Turning in this form would allow me to receive information about “recent legislation” that was “affecting my retirement benefits”. It also signed me up to get a “FREE” guide called “A Guide to California State Teachers Retirement Benefits”. I have no need for any of these things. Apparently, I am still on a mailing list that says I am a teacher.

There have been a lot of news articles lately regarding retirement pensions, and the size of pensions, for government workers. There is a town called Bell, in California. Recently, there has been a lot of controversy about how much money the former city manager, Robert Rizzo, and the former police chief, Randy Adams, would receive yearly as a pension.

Part of the reason this is controversial is because Bell is a town where most of the residents are poor. Rizzo’s pension would be $600,000 a year. Adams is estimated to receive $411,300 a year. Another part of this controversy is because the amount of retirement money that these, (and many other) government workers would be getting was, for the most part, hidden from public knowledge.

Guess who is holding on to the retirement money for Rizzo and Adams? That’s right, it’s CalPERS! The San Luis Obispo Tribune reported today, in an article titled: Morro Bay among cities that have to pay lavish Bell, Calif., pensions, that it is not just the taxpayers of the town of Bell that are going to be paying for those lavish pensions. No, because of the way the CalPERS system is set up, people from 140 small cities and special districts are going to be paying for this.

Morro Bay is sort of near San Luis Obispo, where I live. It is one of the many cities that had to lay off a bunch of teachers in recent years. I cannot help but wonder about how this recent scandal involving CalPERS is going to affect their retirement money.

Of course, the Governator is among one of the people who is urging reforms in the pension system. I think this will be difficult to change. Here are a few quotes from the SLO Tribune article:

“Even the governor’s office couldn’t figure these Bell pensions out,” said Marcia Fritz, a certified public accountant and president of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility.”

“Even though Rizzo and Adam’s salaries were relatively modest until they were hired in Bell, other cities will be responsible for much of their pension costs.”

“Bell hired Adams at more than double the salary he was making in Glendale. That salary spike also doubled his eligible pension amount under CalPERS. City managers in Glendale and Simi Valley, where Adams previously worked, estimate they’ll have to come up with an extra $40,000 in taxpayer dollars each year to cover the pension costs. Ventura’s tab could go much higher.”

This is a giant mess that isn’t going to be sorted out anytime soon. I think that I was lucky that I went after my retirement money when I did. Who knows how much more difficult that would be if I had waited any longer to start that process!

It is my understanding that this was a hard won battle, because many Republicans did not want to extend unemployment benefits. From what I have read, the biggest reason why there was so much resistance to passing this bill was because there doesn’t seem to be any clear plan as to how to actually pay for it. I think. If I am understanding correctly, it seems that most, (if not all), Republicans are more concerned about where the money will come from, and less concerned with the quality of the lives of the people who this bill directly affects the most.

I think it is fitting to put the quote from President Obama that so many of the newspapers are using in their articles about this subject right about here:

“After years of championing policies that turned a record surplus into a massive deficit, the same people who didn’t have any problems spending hundreds of billions of dollars on tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are now saying we shouldn’t offer relief to middle-class Americans.”

So, what does this mean for unemployed people like me? I found a wonderful article on MinnPost.com, that explains it very clearly. The article is called Unemployment benefits extension 101: what you need to know. This article was posted on July 22, 2010.

Who is eligible for the extension? People who have not yet been through all of the many tiers of unemployment insurance. After your initial unemployment insurance benefits run out, you can apply for an extension. I think you can do this more than once, but I am not sure, and it might vary depending on what state you are in. So… I think this new bill means that if you haven’t run through all those possibilities, then you are now able to apply for those extensions. If you have already exhausted everything, well, too bad for you. This bill won’t help you.

For example: I live in California. Right now, California allows people to be on Unemployment Insurance Benefits for a maximum of 99 weeks. This is because of the massive job deficit in California. If you happen to be one of the “99ers”, you’re screwed. You can’t get any more help, even though this bill has been passed.

This extension is supposed to be retroactive to June 2, 2010. From what I have read, I think this means that if you are a person who has been waiting for the extension on your Unemployment Insurance Benefits to kick in, you could be getting a check in the mail in two to four weeks time. Unless you live in California, a state notorious for being extremely slow to pay extensions. One of the reasons that California is so slow is because California does everything by U.S. mail, where other states are using an online certification, and direct depositing of checks.

This Unemployment Insurance extension is supposed to last until the end of November. No idea what happens after that. What I do know is that since the deadline is going to be in November, this will mean that a lot of people are going to be in limbo in the weeks before Christmas, as they wait to see if their unemployment benefits will be extended, or cut. I know that the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are the worst weeks of the year if you are looking for employment. This is when stores are too busy to hire and train someone new, and many businesses are on vacation for the holidays. I know that the weeks in between Thanksgiving and Christmas are extremely stressful for most people, and that this is the time of year when the most suicides occur. Things are going to get rough when this current extension runs out.

One positive thing, though is a change in the new law. Here is how the old law worked: You have a full time job. You lose your job. You file for unemployment, and your benefits are based on what you made at your full time job. You take a part time job, because you are required to continue to look for work in order to receive unemployment benefits. This job falls through, or was seasonal, and you are back on unemployment benefits. Now, your benefits are based on the pittance you made at your part time job, instead of the full time job you originally lost. The new law is supposed to allow people to keep their higher benefits, which makes sense. After all, if you are supposed to look for work, and you do, and you find work… you shouldn’t be punished for doing so.

As for me… I’m not yet sure how the new bill will personally affect my life. I am still on the first …. round?…. of benefits. They are set to expire in September. I think.

Shawn and I have had a short conversation about if I should try and get my benefits extended when they run out. On the one hand, now that this new bill has passed, it seems to me that I shouldn’t have too much trouble getting an extension. We do still need it, despite the fact that I have been getting enough freelance writing work to be roughly equal to a part time job. On the other hand… most of my experience with the EDD and with Unemployment Insurance benefits has been a complete nightmare. I am not looking forward to the stress that comes with the benefits.

Earlier today, we figured that the worst that could happen would be that I would apply for an extension, and get denied. As I write this blog, and reflect on my experiences with the EDD, I question that. I think the worst thing that could happen is that they will harass me, and then make me wait around to see if they decided to continue my benefits, and then deny me.

If I do decide to apply for an extension, the first thing I have to do is see if I can teach myself what I need to do in order to make that happen. Not looking forward to that, either. At this point, I am undecided about if I want to apply for an extension. I just don’t know.

This check was for what I now think of as the “usual amount”. It has been reduced, based on the amount of work I have done, and have reported to the EDD. It came with a Continued Claim Form for the week ending July 17, 2010, and the week ending July 24, 2010. I am to mail it back to them on Sunday, July 25, 2010. Always on a Sunday, the one day of the week that the mail is neither picked up or sent out.

At the end of my last telephone interview with a minion of the EDD, I was told to expect one of two things in the mail. I would either be getting a check, (indicating that my Unemployment Insurance Claim will continue), or I would be getting a letter, (informing me that my benefits have been terminated). I have been waiting, somewhat anxiously, to see what the answer would be.

This is the second check I have gotten from the EDD since the telephone interview. I have not been sent a letter, of any kind. Each check came with a Continued Claim Form, indicating that there would be another check coming, sometime in the future.

I am going to take this to mean that the “other shoe” has, in fact, dropped. It seems that my answer is yes, I will still be getting Unemployment Insurance Benefits as a result of that horrific and stressful telephone interview.

Part of me is cringing, though, because it seems that every time I feel confident that I have gotten everything sorted out with the EDD, another letter of doom finds me.

Today, I finally got my two dollars! There was an envelope in the mail that was not from the EDD. Instead, it was from the State of California Treasurer. Oddly enough, the name on front of the envelope in the part that indicates where it came from said John Chaing. Those of you following along on Between Gigs might remember that John Chaing is the man who is fighting The Govenators attempts to force state workers to accept minimum wage. I consider John Chaing to be a good person, and was delighted that the letter came from his office. I was certain it contained good news.

The good news was that I finally got my check from CalPERS. I have successfully managed to take out my retirement money from a system that I will never, ever, ever be a part of again. It’s mine! It’s in my hand. It’s the amount that I believed it would be. Today is a glorious day! This money can actually go into one of our savings accounts, something that is extremely rare.

And so ends the saga of “I want my two dollars”.

I suffer from severe allergies, which means that I am sick pretty much all of the time. Except, I’m not “sick” as in “contagious” or “diseased”. I’m just severely allergic. Those of you who have friended me on facebook might recall a few times when my status read “…is having a good day”. This usually means I can breathe fairly easily, my eyes aren’t itching, my sinuses aren’t on fire, and I have a slightly larger range of food that is safe-ish for me to eat that day than usual. My version of “I feel pretty good today” would make the rest of you cry, and call in sick to work, and sleep all day long.

This is my reality.

As a result of having so many severe allergies for…. well, forever, I’ve become an expert about what is going on with my body. This means that when I have a few days in a row where my sinuses hurt, I’m exhausted, my throat is sore, my stomach is bothering me, and other non-allergy related symptoms, I know without a doubt that I am actually sick.

I’ve been really really sick since Wednesday, July 7, 2010. After days of drinking lots of fluids and sleeping more hours than one would think the human body was capable of doing, and trying to “fight it off”, I’ve realized that I’m going to need medical attention this time around.

As I may have mentioned before in this blog, I have no health insurance. I live in a country where only those people lucky enough to be employed in jobs that not only offer health benefits, but also give a person enough hours to be eligible for those benefits, is allowed to have health insurance. I had health insurance when I worked full time in a bookstore. I had health insurance when I was working as a teacher’s aide in Special Education. When my job as a teacher’s aide disappeared, so did my health insurance.

Shawn and I have been living since September of 2009 without any form of health insurance. None. Zero. Every medical expense, every doctor’s visit, every prescription for medication since than has been out of pocket expenses. Yes, I did receive information about the COBRA plan that was supposed to, potentially, extend my health insurance benefits after my job ended. However, the amount of money COBRA wanted was more than we could afford to pay. It was more than I was getting from my Unemployment Insurance Benefits. It was not an option.

Today, we went to the MedStop, which is one of those walk in, no appointment needed, medical clinics. Some people who had insurance didn’t have to pay one single cent to the MedStop. Most people paid ten dollars. One guy had to pay fifteen dollars. How much did my doctor’s visit to the same MedStop cost? One hundred and fifty dollars. Out of pocket. Or, I should say, out of credit card.

I remember hearing President Obama talk about health care reform, but have yet to personally experience anything relating to health care that actually helps me. Perhaps help is on the way. There is a now an official website put up by the U.S. Government that has information about health care.

Now, I haven’t read through this entire site yet. I’m not sure how much of it I would understand, as sick as I am right now. But, I am of the impression that somewhere, in all those links, is a way to get affordable health insurance.

At least, this is my hope. If anyone who reads this blog has managed to get affordable health insurance as a result of using that government website, please leave a comment, and let me know. I’d like to see some evidence that this is helping people, instead of just looking as if it might, possibly, potentially, help some people.

Also, excuse the typos and strangely formed sentences that may appear in this blog. I am too sick right now to do much in the way of proofreading. Hopefully, I wrote coherently enough so that those of you who read this blog can find the health care link I embedded somewhere in there.