Fun with Unemployment

Does this make sense to you?

 John was able to get unemployment while going to school and didn't have to put in contacts. (he had no work search requirements) He was approved to receive unemployment while attending school full-time. And we were grateful, because this helped us stay in our home!

Then he got a part time job and still didn't have to put in contacts.

Now he has a full time job. He still qualifies for what is left of unemployment, yet he has to put in 4 contacts a week as his job search requirement. So then, if he only gets 15 hours one week, he can get unemployment, but ONLY if he looks for another job? He should be getting 34-40 hours/week. It is nice to know that if he doesn't, he can get unemployment, but if you HAVE a job, why would you look for another job just to get unemployment? OR why would you look for another job just because you got shorted on hours one week? How do people screw the system when it's so hard to do it the right way?

They denied him benefits during his transition period of quitting one job and starting another. It was going from Christmas week to New Years week. He worked until December 28th and started the New job January 2nd. The denial was basically a computer glitch. It asked for the old job's address and had a list to choose from and then told us the one we chose was invalid. Therefore we couldn't proceed, therefore he was denied because he didn't provide information.

So then, the next week with New Years... no one worked on New Years. The new job was with a new company and hadn't quite been up and running yet. So there wasn't much do to. They found a few things for John to do and he got maybe 15 hours or so that week. Again, keep in mind that one of those days was a holiday! Well, when he filed for unemployment that week he was denied. We found out it was because he didn't put in his 4 contacts. He only put in the one, because he had JUST started a job.

The guy called to talk to John and was rude to him. He didn't understand why he didn't work 40 hours that week! Well obviously, this guy works for the state and his hours don't fluctuate like the rest of the world. I'm sure that guy didn't get 40 hours that week, with New Years being a holiday. P.S. He was supposed to call this guy to clear up the issue and he was told to call him the next day which was a Friday between 9 AM-4 PM. He called around 10:00 only to get a voice mail saying the guy isn't in on Fridays. So, how is this guy getting 40 hours a week? He should put in 4 contacts!!!  LOL.

Here's the fun part, John's new job gets paid every 2 weeks. Without unemployment, we went 2 weeks without any sort of income. That's really fun to do right after Christmas. John did get his last check with his old job during that time. It was for $80.

I was bound and determined to fight both denials. We appealed and we were all ready to go. Then the guy calls and is wanting to try to get it cleared up so it doesn't have to go to appeals. Hmmm, interesting. He calls again a few days later and says John's case "fell through the cracks". It is finally getting fixed and he will get the unemployment for both weeks. Yay! Persistence people. If you feel that something isn't right, do all you can to try and get it fixed! We sent messages, wrote letters, called, and then appealed.

I still don't understand though why he didn't need to put in 4 contacts when he didn't have a job or when he had a small part time job, but he needs to with a full time job. Such a headache!!!