God bless our beaucratic system of Government. I love all of those beautiful yards of red tape, all of those intricate rules, all of the people working for it who don't seem to know what the other people around them do. Put it all together and that means you spend a lot of time trying to accomplish something. Sometimes, it all too often it turns out, to be a giant waste of time. And oh how I love to waste mine!
As I've blogged before, I work for the local Educational System. It's a contract position, renewing annually. My hours were cut in half for the summer months, so I spoke with someone at the employment department and asked if I could be eligible for some unemployment benefits. Yep. I was told I would most likely be eligible for a few weeks of help.
Good enough, I said. That's all I was looking for. A little help over the summer.
So I file my claim. I call up the department to add some information I wasn't able to put on the claim form. And again asked, do you think I will be eligible. Yep. I was given the same answer.
So I receive more information in the mail, fill out some more paperwork, register for their required online job search tool and send it off.
Last week, I receive more paperwork to be filled out. (Already I am thinking I alone am responsible for 1/4 of a tree.) This particular paperwork is for people who work in Education. The questions didn't seem to apply to me given they were geared towards those who are on holiday, break or between school years. Given I'm still actually working, just at reduced hours, I didn't know how to answer the questions. So I call up and speak with a woman with one of those flippant attitudes. One of those "yep, that's how it is, life ain't fair" as she interrupts me left and right. Apparently, the unemployment laws are a whole different ball game if you're an Education System Employee. It doesn't matter if my hours are reduced. It doesn't matter if I'm even still working a 12 month year instead of a 9 month year. I'm still considered to be on a "break between school years". Why?
Because the students are.
Summer term is considered a break between school years.
That's ridiculous, I said. I'm not on any break.
Doesn't matter.
So what you're telling me is that I'm likely ineligible for any sort of benefits.
Yep.
Ok, so why then did the two other staff members, who knew of where I work and of my situation, weren't able to tell me that? It would have saved me from wasting my time going through this whole process.
Oh, they probably don't know the rules. They're not the decision-makers.
Oh, and you are? I asked.
Yep.
Fuck.
Ok, I didn't say fuck outloud, but I did say I wanted to thank the state for wasting my time. Can I get any benefits for that??
Hmm. For some reason she didn't appreciate my humor.
There is an up note, I guess. If, come this fall term, when I will no longer be considered "between school years", if my weekly work wage amount falls below my unemployment wage amount, I can claim that week. That was good to know. But I'd rather not go that route. Being my spouse had his hours reduced for the summer months as well, we could have stood to use that extra help now, not then.
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5 comments:
Just think if you were waiting for a check-up through our Government Health Care system?
Talk about red tape.
You should have taken the time you spend filling out paper-work and spend it on getting your Dream-Job going.
You will come far better in the end, IMO.
Hey Ranando~
I don't know about that one (gov't run health care). On the one hand, I don't trust Uncle Sam to run such a program. And yet on the other hand, I also have the same level of trust (zero) in our current privatized system. SOMETHING needs to be done with our current crumbling system. It's nothing more than a giant bureacratic nightmare (my experience that is--taking lots of time to wait for insurance "approval", needing to be in perfect health in order to even be approved by a private, non-group plan--not to mention the massive amounts of paperwork doctors are required to fill out, which leaves them less time to actually see patients--it isn't uncommon to wait 4-6 weeks just to get in for a check-up. In fact, it's become the norm.) I know some people who live in Alberta, BC and they love their state run plan. As with anything in life, there are horror stories on both sides of the fence.
Hub and I were on the state plan for 1.5 years. I was shockingly surprised at how smooth it was. We never had a problem. We never had to call customer service. Never got denied services. And not once did we see any paperwork. Perhaps states could run such a system.
Anyway.......yes, sometimes I knock on doors, kicking and screaming wanting an answer NOW, all in a panic, when at times those shut doors are the universe's way of saying "sshh, it's ok, something will come along and you will be ok." I picked up more work today--and I have a TON of it. So I wouldn't have needed the $$ afterall at this point.
The dream job is of course having to wait for the company to finish making the start of my demo, plus waiting for them to get funding for future projects in which I will be composing for. I've made a huge start and that's good enough for me, although I am an inpatient person by nature and am ready to begin composing for them now. Or YESTERDAY. In the interim, I've been composing new pieces with the intention of their using them.
Speaking of.....still waiting to hear back from you about my writing sample. tick tock tick tock tick tock :)
I didn't know you were waiting for me, I'm sorry.
I thought you were sending me some things that you wrote, did I miss something?
i think it would be like nina said. no worrying about a procedure being covered, no worrying about being denied. no paperwork and no calling customer service. that sounds a million times better than my current situation: uninsured because i'm in between jobs.
ranando, your first comment is like a knife stabbing me in the gut. that's your prerogative, sure enough, but when it comes down to it, its downright mean.
nina, you should've told that "decision maker" to do a better job keeping people informed of what the rules are. when i was temporarily laid off a few months ago, i was told i'd recieve a check for my waiting week, it never came and i guess i'm lucky that i didn't have to ever call and ask them about it. oh well,
but back to health care. sure there are horror stories from both our completely fucked up and upside down health care industry, and government funded universal health care in other countries, but show me one example of someone DYING in one of those other countries because they weren't covered and couldn't pay for something.
Yes we are free in America, free to let others die because they're poor. what a great freedom to have.
yes--i wish i had told queen decision maker that employment dept. staff need to be doing a better job in informing clients as to what the rules are.
i had another experience with DHS yesterday--and got so fucking frustrated that i told the caseworker to shut the hell up and demanded to speak to her supervisor. she was the type of person who kept over-talking me, pointing the finger at me saying i SHOULD know the rules while completely discounting everything i was saying....and all the while remaining very professional (fake) sounding in her syrupy sweet voice--i cannot stand phony shit like that. (again, i had yet another experience with another state agency being told a variety of things to do--all dependent upon who i spoke with.) after speaking with her supervisor, i was given a deep apology, told i HAD been misinformed, said i had a legitimate cause to file a complaint against this particular caseworker and asked if i wanted to file such a formal complaint. i said you bet your ass i do.
health insurance.....when it comes to private health insurance--if you can afford it and especially if you have wealth, you can afford the best. therefore, you likely won't have any complaints. it's easy as pie to sit on your high horse of wealth and say "i have no problems. why do you?"
people like that are pretty few and far between. NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT HAVING ADAQUATE AND ACCESSIBLE HEALTH CARE. i don't give a squat what your income or financial situation is. IT IS A RIGHT. PERIOD. and anyone who disagrees with that can go piss on themselves.
yep. money buys your freedom in this country. the wealthier you are, the more powerful you are, the more free you are. just ask cheney, libby, bush, the enron pigs, bill gates ( mr. monopolist), select members of the drug cartel and cia/dea who deal in drug smuggling, etc. etc. etc. anyone who disagree with that, follow the directions above.
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