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!!!

My husband goes to College

So as I've mentioned before, my life has been busy as my husband goes to school full time. They say if you're a military wife/spouse, you're pretty much IN the military as well. That is so true. I think the same goes for a student's wife/spouse. Especially if you are helping your spouse with homework/classes.

I'm so boring, that's about all that's been going on around here. Well that, and the fact that we're in the middle of a short sale and don't know which way we're headed, if we're coming or going. Not sure why they're called "Short Sales". We started the whole thing back in November. Well okay, so the papers got sent to the wrong department and we had to start over. Now we know that we don't qualify for a loan modification. I guess that doesn't work when you don't have "income".  Even though John gets "paid" to go to school. It's a complicated mess right now. I worry how we'll find a place to rent without this so called "income".

DWS (Department of Workforce Services) is still screwing things up left and right and I'm still left to figure out the mess and how to fix it. I recently had to do a case review and they asked me to verify a bunch of stuff. They had me listed as NEVER MARRIED. How did that happen? Then under medical they listed myself, my husband and my son, but not our 2 girls. And they said that we all were on the same insurance since 1997. Hmmm, then why would we need help? Then it asked to verify a bunch of information that was not there. Talk about frustrating. It asked if anyone EVER served in the military. Then, along with that same question, "Who is the person in need?" How do you answer that. My husband served in the military, but I'm not sure what the need part is.

Earlier we applied for help with school through them, and they denied us. The lady was pretty rude saying she didn't see a need since the VA was covering tuition and giving us money for books and we got a Pell Grant. We explained to her that the VA would give us up to $1000 a year for books, tools and supplies, but hubby will need about $3000. We also have bills to pay, etc. Well, I guess somehow it got on SLCC's record that we were applying for this program, so they list that we have this $1000 outside resource (from DWS) It's kind of biting us in the butt a bit. Part of this review is asking about school assistance. Oh my UGH!

Fed up with unemployment, food stamps, etc.

What a flipping rollercoaster we have been on since John was laid off in October.

We went in right away to apply for Unemployment and ended up applying for Food Stamps and Medical Assistance as well.

Things went smooth for about a week. We got the unemployment, food stamps and medical for our kids. John and I don't get medical. Because John is a Veteran, they say he has "other insurance" and can go to the VA hospital for everything. Not sure why I couldn't get anything.

So we're set up and things are ok and then all of a sudden I get a notice saying that my son is no longer eligible for Medical and will only be covered for the month of November. However, my girls get to stay on. What the hell?

In fact, here's the notice:


We have made a decision about your eligibility for benefits. Below is a summary of the eligibility results.

Childrens Health
Insurance
10-24-2011 December 2011 Change
Children's Health Insurance Program
There has been a change to the Household benefits for this Program. The following individual(s) remain
eligible for this program:
JESSICA
TRISTAN
Please review the following information for details:
• The above individual(s) will be enrolled in the Childrens Health Insurance program. Their
enrollment will continue until the end of your current eligibility period.
Please note that the change to Household Members may show the removal of a member
and at the same time, an addition of a different member.

• The number of eligible persons in your household has changed.

This made no sense to me. It doesn't explain WHY. Nothing had changed, and yet to them the number of eligible persons in our household had changed. After some digging and decoding and hours spent either on the phone, online chat or in the office, we find out that THEY thought our son had other insurance. But rather than calling us and clarifying it, they make a decision and send us a notice that is as clear as mud.

Our food stamps have been messed with as well with UNCLEAR notices. Then we clear them up and all of a sudden there is another problem. And of course, we are sent a very vague notice.

Calling and chatting online is a joke, if not a nightmare. First you get to wait at LEAST 30 minutes for either. Then you end up speaking to someone who doesn't know what's going on and has to decode someone else's notes. The only way we get things figured out is if we make the 30 minute drive to the office. BUT, even then, they are not the ones that send the notices, so they have to do some decoding.

Hubby and I feel like we are jumping through hoops. Not just any hoops though, hoops on FIRE! And every now and then we get burned.

I tried chatting twice last week and waited about an hour each time even thought the wait was only supposed to be 46 minutes. One time they closed the chat on me without even starting the session. The other time, no one ever came on. I've been waiting to chat as we speak since 12:55 PM. It was supposed to be a 26 minute wait. It's been about 43 so far. Makes you feel like a really important person. To top it off, I'm sick right now. Don't have much of a voice or patience for calling in and don't feel good enough to make the drive over. So this sits unresolved for awhile.    :(

It is time consuming, stressful and frustrating! All we want is to get back on our feet and have a little bit of help in the meantime. John is even filling in applications for jobs that pay very little just to stay honest. However, NO ONE is calling him back. No job offers... nothing! That's ok though, because he will be starting school next Monday. My baby's going to college. I think I mentioned that if I could figure out how, I'd like to go too.

That hasn't been easy either- figuring out all the school stuff. We thought we had it all figured out, but have had to re-do a few things. We're getting closer though. This will be a cool experience for all of us. Plus he's using his GI Bill, so he's getting PAID to go to school. Can't get any better than that, right?

Oh hey- someone is acknowledging me on chat...49 minutes later. Wish me luck.

Join the club ( a bit raw and personal)

It's not a club you'd want to join. First we joined the Unemployment Club. I would have thought that we would fall apart. But we're standing strong. In a way, I feel that things have never been better. Not financially of course, but we're spending more time as a family and we're happy. It's kind of weird. Shouldn't we feel depressed or in despair? Well we don't. Sure, it's a bit scary at times, but I guess we know that it won't last. We've all had to step up a little and it feels good.

Here is a chance for new opportunities. John and I had talked about donating plasma before and we just never did. Well now we're going as often as we can. It's nice to bring in a little extra money and spend time together doing something to help others. John is working on going back to school. I think it's awesome. He has wonderful benfefits to use from being in the military. As a homeschooling family I know that this will be great for us. It will teach our kids a lot and leave a big impression. Heck, it might even teach me a thing or two.   ;-)


I've mentioned before that money has been tight since John got out of the Navy. We had carefully planned it out, but some things didn't happen like they were supposed to, which meant that we didn't have as much income. About a month or two before he got laid off, we started talking about short selling our home.

There were multiple reasons:

• Our income was about $1100 less than when we qualified for the home in 2006
• Even though our income shrank, the bills weren't getting any smaller
• We were extremely upside down (our home is worth $70,000 less than what we paid for and we've refinanced a few times)
• The commute was getting to us (we live a good hour and a half round-trip from anywhere or civilization as I call it)
• Because of the commute, we were spending a good amount of money on gas (and putting plenty of miles on our vehicles)
• It was all wearing on us, we were getting tired on the drives home
• We felt like we were getting nowhere, struggling just to get by
• When we first moved out here, part of the reason was because we couldn't afford to stay in the same county as we were before. Now that houses have gone down, we feel that we have a chance to get back to where we came from. (eventually)

Then my husband got laid off in October, so we really had no choice but to join the short sale club. We could barely get by before, how could we get by with even less money coming in? We're surprised that we've been able to stay here this long. Over the last 2-3 years we have watched our neighborhood disintegrate as our neighbors have moved out up and down and all around our street. So here we are next on the list.

Please know that we do LOVE our house, our neighborhood, our neighbors and our community. It's just our time to go. It has been awesome and we'll miss it, but we are ready to move on to our new chapter in life.

Our kids are definitely learning life skills right now.

• Coping Skills
• Problem Solving
• The power of laughter
• The importance of a good sense of humor
• Working together as a team

Our home is a decent size. Including the partially finished basement, we have about 3200 square feet. Well we have gotten pretty darn comfortable here. Yet, I doubt our next home will be the same size. I'm pretty sure we're going to have to downsize. Besides, I know we have too much stuff.  We have all been working our butts off to get this house ready to show to people. And they have been filing in left and right. Our lives are chaotic and crazy right now. We still have plenty of stuff to do, but it seems doable. I'm looking at this as a fresh start. I'm usually pretty positive and easy going, but I'm surprised at just how well I'm handling all this. I've been pleasantly surprised that my husband is reacting in the same way. When we heard that John might got laid off, I thought I'd cry when it actually happened. Then I thought I'd cry if we had to sell the house. Yet I keep getting through it all without a tear. We'll come out of this better than ever.