10 Comments

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I have been unemployed in Florida since June, was about to go on a 20 week extension, and now that’s been killed. What am I to do? What are people with mortages and families to do? This is a disgrace. I have no options other than to go to washington DV to protest, or go postal. I’m devestated with this ecomomy, I’ve cashed in all my 401k savings and now have to consider selling my house at a huge loss due to the economy. Many are in much worse shape than I am, I feel for you all

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Unemployment benefits are an economic stimulus, pure and simple. While I am not sure of the latest information on the impact of those benefits on our economy, the last statistic I’ve come across is that for every dollar of unemployment benefit dispersed, a $1.60 comes whizzing back into the economy. Therefore, it benefits us all to support jobless fellow citizens via this extension of benefits. Remember, we all pay a portion of our salaries into unemployment insurance, creating a large pool of money…that’s the mechanism of insurance after all… and this economy needs all the stimulus it can get. There is great and noble precedence for supporting the neediest in our country, not the least of which precedent is in the Constitution of our nation.

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donna@momrising.org Reply:
November 20th, 2010 at 9:56 pm

@Jackie Levine,

Eloquently said. Thank you for your thoughts.

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Caroline,

Thank you for sharing your letter you have written. Like you and million other Americans I am unemployed and have been since June of 2009. I just found out that I ran out of my euc benefits a week or so ago.

In my state unemployed workers don’t have to go to an unemployment office all we have to do is call is file over the phone. It has to be so hard waiting there, hearing others stories while you wait to go into a room four at a time with little or no help from the workers there.

It makes me sick to read that some people think that being unemployed we are just sitting on our butts just sucking in these benefits.

I hope Congress does extend the euc benefits to help us out during these hard times.

Once again thank you for sharing your letter.

Shawna

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donna@momrising.org Reply:
November 20th, 2010 at 9:57 pm

@Shawna,

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences and thoughts!

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This is my latest story on Examiner.com:

http://www.examiner.com/unemployment-benefits-in-new-york/urgent-alert-on-unemployment-benefits-extension-from-ny-s-labor-commissioner#comments

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Anita Reply:
November 17th, 2010 at 5:53 pm

Thank you, Naomi.

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There is so much emphasis being placed on the private sector hiring, local election results, etc., but I have not heard any local news story or elected official address the looming unemployment situation in the State of Illinois. Many talk about bringing jobs back which is great, however, we are soon going to be faced with a crisis situation in our very own state unless action is taken quickly.

Anyone who is currently receiving extended unemployment benefits – beyond the 26 week period – will cease receiving payments on 12/4/2010 unless another extension is approved. It does not matter if someone is “approved” through a date beyond 12/4/2010, ALL benefit payments will cease on this date.

I wanted to share the below email with you that I sent out two weeks ago regarding my own unemployment scenario (it’s somewhat lengthy). I have sent to the White House, Department of Labor, the Clinton Foundation, my local unemployment contacts, local elected representatives, etc., and have received very little acknowledgment and no assistance in escalating this issue.

October 29, 2010
Good Day.
I am a lifelong resident of the State of Illinois. I support our systems, current administration and have been an election judge for many years.

I wanted to write to express my concerns over the current unemployment situation. My story is not new nor is it worse or better than anyone else’s, but it is very real and a true example as to what is really going on with our current job climate. I have to question the statistics that quote unemployment claims dropping, etc. and wonder if these results are truly reflective of the message is that is being portrayed. One is led to believe that by fewer claims being paid that more people are finding jobs. I would hope that the leaders of this organization understand that by sending this type of message, hopes are being raised only to be shot down again by the true reality.

I am almost 53 years old and had never been on unemployment in my entire career which is over 30 years, working as a business professional that entire time. I found myself without a job as of June 2010 and here we are at the end of October 2010 and I am not even close to any type of new job. I was pretty optimistic for the first 2-3 months, spending countless hours a day networking, surfing the internet, joining various organizations, working with placement services, etc. feeling confident that with experience and being a professional, I would have a job within 3 months max. I have gradually reduced my “standards” of expected income, the hopes of the “perfect opportunity” and a “better position than I had before” to “please just let me find something to help make ends meet”.

I have friends who are closing up their businesses because there isn’t enough work to support keeping them open. I was talking with another friend the other day who said he has so much business going that they can’t keep up. But he is not ready to hire any new people as he is afraid that the new business won’t be there in another few months and the last thing he wants to do is let someone go, so he and his family are working long hours in order to meet the business demands. At one point, I was having serious conversations with my son about doing data entry for his company on a temporary basis. They chose to have interns fill that role, which I completely support, but this is just an example of what me and many others in my situation are faced with every single day.

I have applied for hundreds of jobs and have had maybe 4 what I would call semi-solid leads/interviews out of those. Each time I have been told that I am either over-qualified or that the company has decided to go in a different direction. I have been told time and again that I interviewed extremely well and that everyone thoroughly enjoyed spending time with me and that I would make a fantastic addition to the organization, HOWEVER…….

Wednesday I spent over 3 hours at my local unemployment office which is a very sad experience in itself. The office was packed, there were people who brought their young children and there was someone from every age group, gender and race. I spent the first 1.5 hours in a large room and slowly, in groups of 4, we were then called to a much smaller room with tables and chairs. At one side of this room was another row of chairs and tables with a couple of computers and monitors. One by one we were called up to talk to one of the employees at this side group of tables. The situation was frustrating at best for everyone there. The 3 employees that were assisting individuals would wait on one person and then disappear for 5-10 minutes, come back, wait on another and same thing. Only one employee was dressed semi-business casual. The others were dressed very casual and the general atmosphere was unprofessional, unwelcoming and not at all reassuring. The most humiliating thing about this experience was that there was not one bit of privacy for the individuals that were speaking with employees. There were no privacy screens between computers, no separation between the general waiting area and the area where the individual meetings were taking place. The closest seat to the meeting area was maybe one chair space away. So even with trying my best to tune out and respect other’s privacy, I was still able to hear people tell their stories of how they lost their job, why they didn’t file for benefits, and finally one women just stood up and shouted “well I guess I am going to lose my house then” and walked out of the room. There was absolutely no reaction from the employee who she had been talking to – she just got up, grabbed her drink and nonchalantly walked out of the room and then came back a few minutes later.

I had gone to the office to talk about my current benefit status and the extension process. The evening before, I pulled up some information stating that the current extension period was ending on 12/4/2010 and that one had to be in the extension period by 11/20/2010 in order to receive the extended benefits. While talking with one of the employees yesterday, I verified that my current benefit period ends on 11/27/2010 and I can’t apply for the extended benefits until I exhaust my current benefits, which I miss by one week. I also wanted to clarify just what it meant when it said that the extension program was ending on 12/4/2010 – did that mean that even if someone had been approved for the extension, their benefits would cease on 12/4/2010 or would they be grandfathered so long as they were approved by 12/4/2010? The employee informed me that ALL extended benefits payments will cease on 12/4/2010. I was shocked, disappointed and again frustrated. I asked if there was anything else I could do – any state programs, etc. and was told that I had no other options. So here I am, having worked for over 30 years and I am going to receive my 26 weeks of unemployment benefits and that is it. I had believed all along that I at least could apply for the extension and that I would have close to one year of benefits if needed. Believe me, that is my last choice in this situation, but at least I had the reassurance or comfort in knowing I had that coming, only to find out that I have 4 more weeks and nothing more.

I would venture to say that many of the individuals out there who are in the extended benefit phase do not fully understand the impact of the upcoming dates and that their benefit payments will cease on 12/4/2010. I do understand that there have been four extensions to date which has no doubt helped many, many people. But there needs to be greater communication by your office and the media and the state organizations to individuals receiving benefits that in about another 5 weeks, they are done. I want to believe that your office and the other decision-makers understand the implications of not providing another extension, but there is not much reassurance when the news and data that is released makes it sound as if unemployment numbers are down, that job hiring must be up. Believe me, there is no direct correlation with one to the other. I know I heard 3 people Wednesday say that they lost their jobs in August or September and had just not applied for benefits until now.

At this point, I have started to apply for seasonal help at local businesses and am trying to justify to myself that I would be happy and grateful for a job that pays me at least what I receive in unemployment – which is about a third of what I earned while working. That is an extremely difficult decision for me to even get my head around and admit that I am almost willing to do almost anything. I am married and extremely grateful that my husband has a solid job with benefits and that we no longer have dependents at home, but that doesn’t mean that we can continue to survive on basically one income. We have built our lives around being a two-income family and with the rising cost of everything, we are very much struggling to make it. We have changed what we do and how we do in order to conserve what we have. We have become very frugal (which is not a bad thing at all) and have learned to make many adjustments and sacrifices. I am also very grateful that we are both healthy and have no major medical situations to deal with. My job loss and the immediate unknown future has set back any hopes we ever had of even thinking about retirement and now our hope has shifted to letting us both stay healthy enough so that we can continue to work and try to recover from this challenging situation we are in.

My major concern and hope is that very careful consideration is being given to the current state of affairs and that another extension will be offered. My personal situation is hard enough, but I know there are many others who have even greater challenges. To think that benefits will be ending for so many people in about 5 short weeks – just before the holidays – is a hard pill to swallow.

I appreciate your time and consideration – thank you very much.

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Donna Norton Reply:
November 16th, 2010 at 5:13 pm

@Caroline,
Thanks so much for sharing your personal experience. If you would like to post your letter as a blog in the blog carnival, please email me at donna@momsrising.org. We’d love to include it as a post as well as a comment.

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