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Are you a recent victim of the Bush recession? Hoping to finally cash in on those (extremely meager) unemployment benefits you've been accumulating?
Better hope your cell phone bill is paid up:
In January, with the unemployment rate nearing 6%, nearly 12.6 million calls were placed to the state's toll-free phone number to apply for unemployment insurance benefits. But more than three-fifths never got through.Frank Hartzell knows the problem all too well. A laid-off Mendocino County social services worker, he tried calling morning and afternoon, 45 times in December. The computer hung up every time until No. 46, and he was able to apply.
Of course it bears mention that with the sharp increase in unemployment and the State of California in the midst of a massive budget crunch, there's going to be a longer than normal wait time to arrange the sickly financial methadone that will, most likely, only barely keep you out of the homeless shelter. Even so, one might think that a competently run government would foresee such problems and try to prevent them.
Too bad the joke's on Jane and Joe taxpayer. As it turns out, the system was apparently designed to inconvenience.
Poor customer service has been the norm in recent years at the department. Four years ago, a Schwarzenegger-administration government-overhaul plan noted that "as many as 50% of the callers into their call centers receive a busy signal creating an irritating situation."The outlook could get worse. Last week the number of unemployment claims jumped 21% to 40,000, compared with the same week in 2007, and the state's unemployment rate rose to 5.7% in February from 5% a year earlier. On Friday the U.S. Labor Department reported that 80,000 nonfarm jobs were lost in March, the biggest decline in five years.
Of course, this is just one of many wonderful ways that the unemployed worker is screwed. Other screw methods include:
* A maximum time limit that appears to have been created specifically to worsen economic crises: "Benefits can be paid for a maximum of 26 weeks in most States." This length of time might be increased in times of mass economic hardship, but that increase will still have an artificial limit. (In other words, better hope the depression ends in 18 months.)
Obviously, anyone who can't find a new job in that length of time is a lazy Welfare cheat. Obviously.
* Taxes. You read that correctly. Not only are you literally begging the government for money you are supposedly entitled to, not only does this money come with an artificially imposed time limit that is unlikely to take the actual economic picture into account, and not only are you making a fraction for your former income. You'll still owe taxes. And guess what? They aren't withheld. SUPRISE!
Imagine finding out you owe money one money you didn't earn because you used other money that you supposedly received for hardship purposes to pay rent or buy food. Yikes! This doesn't even get into the bigger issue of how the tax code leans far more heavily on the middle class and poor than on the rich. Because doing so means you love the terrorists. Traitor.
* Hoping to use your time off to make yourself more employable? Ha ha, suck it braniac! There's a good chance that taking college classes will cause you to lose your benefits. Sure, there are some circumstances under which this isn't the case, but be warned - the state has a vested interest in denying benefits. So it's not going to be easy. And guess what? If your income in the previous tax year was awesome, even if you're destitute now, you probably won't qualify for financial aid.
Basically, you can suck it, or suck it large. The choice is yours.
Long story short, you would be highly advised to do your research into Unemployment Benefits now, before you're one of the millions of Bush era Lucky Duckies. In the meantime, instead of wasting your Cell Phone minutes calling the Unemployment Office, (minutes that would be better served calling your friends and family while you can still afford a cell phone,) might we suggest the internet?
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You can do the ENTIRE process of applying for Unemployment online. There is no need to call at all, initially. This article is pointless really without pointing this fact out.
How wonderful that unemployment is so high, for the unemployment office that is.
They now have a 100% bulletproof excuse for any complaints about their competency level and/or customer service.
Heaven forbid, something out of the ordinary should happen. Then you are stuck in the, "send us this send us that" hell, if you can even reach anyone that is!
I called my local state assemblyman Mike Feuer's Office in my last desperate attempt at some help -- Didn't do a damn thing, except tell me how busy the unemployment office was.
What a total joke. Something really needs to be done here! There are plenty of people out of work, I think that UI offices need to have some downsizing of their own!
I haven't tried the online service in a few years, but I remember when I did try it the process was convoluted, and even after filling everything out it directed me to call the number.
When I was using unemployment benefits, calling in was pretty bad. Not 45 dropped calls bad, but really bad.
For better or worse, I haven't used unemployment benefits in years. But I must say, going without food for days is more appetizing than dealing with those people.
A few points--
You can choose to withhold 10% of your unemployment check. Also, you can collect benefits in California for 36 consecutive weeks (up to a year if you get a part-time job to supplement your income/off-set your unemployment benefits).
I hate to pour cold water on a good old jeremiad, but my experience with unemployment was a breeze. I applied online, checks started arriving shortly there after, they were always correct and all I had to do was place a few checkmarks on the form before sending it back in.
as Tottenham stated you can apply directly online for unemployment, I had to do this late last year. You will still have to go to one of the EDD offices (inconvenient locations) to prove you are who you are - Driver's Lic, SS#, etc. - otherwise they will withhold your benefits.
The way I was able to still get unemployment benefits while attending school is that I attend evening classes. Since I was working FT and attending school PT it worked out. I had a phone interview with EDD & the woman said they would re-evaluate my case once I started my new semester, which they never did and is almost over.
One note on TAXES, there is a box you can check off to have them withheld on your bi-weekly unemployment form. You have to remember to check that off each time you mail it in by Sunday night/early Monday morning. I wish they had that form online as well, I have almost forgotten to mail it in a couple times. If you do forget to mail it in your unemployment benefits will be delayed.
While the whole process is frustrating I was lucky because my company did provide a good severance package, resume workshops, and they also had a rep from EDD walk us through the unemployment forms. Unfortunately, not all companies provide the same opportunities when they lay off people.
b3rtl3-
"You will still have to go to one of the EDD offices (inconvenient locations) to prove you are who you are - Driver's Lic, SS#, etc. - otherwise they will withhold your benefits."
this is not true
apply online and in about weeks you'll have your first check.
It is true that you can't get through. I needed to make some changes and couldn't do it online and had to call. For three weeks I called everyday ten or more times a day at different times throughout the day and never got through. I think it's really unconscionable that they make you go through this when you are just trying to survive and follow their rules.
Also, I think it's an atrocity that you are taxed on money that was taken out of your paycheck to begin with as tax. That's double taxation!!!!
If one is not working then one has plenty of time for 45 calls, which takes less than ten minutes, one after the other.
Very helpful post and comments, since I am on the verge of possibly being laid off. Thanks, LAist!
That said, I wanted to tell gurugirl37 that your employer pays the tax on unemployment, not you, the employee. (If we don't keep our facts straight, then our valid complaints lose credibility.)
Since the startup I was working for imploded into great big fiery "we ran out of funding!" chunks, I've been on unemployment. Since the beginning of December actually. (Anyone need an actionscript developer?)
I applied online. I got a check a couple of weeks later. And I continue to get checks whenever I remember to send the forms in.
Ridiculously easy to do. And, if you send the form back with priority mail (2-3 days) they usually get it next day, which means you get a check either 3 or 4 days later.
Yes, the phone system is such a royal pain in the ass. But the automated system is nice. Tells me exactly when the check was paid. It would be much easier if it was computerized and the checks were direct deposited (not to mention saving the state a crapton of money on postage and paper), but it's not, and it seems to work sufficiently well for me.
@ b3rti3 my company had like 5 EDD reps come in and talk to us, and help us fill out the forms. Incredibly helpful to have a question and just wave over the EDD guy to come answer it.
That's cool kristinester -
though not every company will be so cool to their soon-to-be-laid-off employees. Some, like the company I worked for many years ago, opted for a surprise layoff session instead. One payday, they basically selected who was out in a kind of lotto system, behind closed doors. Your name gets pulled and then you mysteriously get called into the CFO's office for a sit down explanation, after which you were walked briskly to the elevator, where a security guard handed the stuff from your office to you in a hastily pulled together box.
No "here's what you do next," or anything.
What's worse is that not two weeks before I was laid off, we were pulled into a big company meeting where we were told, wait for it, that despite the rumors we may have heard, there would be no layoffs. Hooray!
I suspect most people being laid off will experience that.
My feeling is that most companies want to squeeze as much work as possible out of their employees right up until the moment they walk them to the elevator with a box full of office doo-dads. They know that if they give any advance warning of the screwing-over to come, their employees will most likely slack off and some may even decide to take some parting gifts home. Like, say, a stray printer.
In some cases, they might fear violent reprisals. There's a bank that shares the same building with my employer. Said bank recently laid off about 20 people. The very next day, an extremely expensive security system was suddenly installed in the lobby. I'm willing to bet that the security system cost at least as much as those 20 people did in a month.
Anyway, my long winded point is that most people aren't given any assistance when they're cut loose and kind of have to navigate this stuff alone. Compounding this, recall older workers might not be as web comfortable as we generally are and don't know where to start. So they call asking for help.
do you ever make a post with something positive to say? everything you write is filled with complaints, whining, bitching, and none of it is written concisely, i might add. it's just getting really old reading about how government/corporations are only out to screw over people like you. speaking of people like you, your writing is so fucking narcissistic and self-righteous. don't forget about your long-windedness and inability to create cohesive points. with that said i think you should take your obama poster, hop in your mini coop, and drive out of the eastside and into canada, where the socialist attitudes might be more accepting of your annoying elitism and enormous hipster ego.
Future Perfect, you're back! And here I thought we were getting along. I mean, and here I will have thought we would have been getting along.
GG2 - As a freelancer (sounds relaxing, doesn't it? It actually means "frequently unemployed") I know this system well and yes - do all of your filing online. I usually do it that Friday evening when my job ends and I've never had a problem. In fact, I tend to get my paperwork faster than my coworkers who have filed by phone. Also, you can save a copy of everything so if you have to file again in the future, you have it all right there.
Woah... Perhaps futureperfect is actually some anonymous scorned former lover, Ross?
i don't even like being in the same zip code as ross's weiner.
Buuurrrnnn!
Well to be fair, whenever future perfect is around, Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader is harder than I am.