I just need to vent...

AprilZ81 · August 2015

The continued job search is really starting to weigh heavily on me and since I'm the one who deals with our day-to-day finances I see where everything is going and what is not coming in.

I've been doing okay until last week when I received a notice that my benefits were being denied because "I am no longer unemployed." This is due to my three weeks worth of work that I notified them of like I was supposed to. Even though my staffing agency has confirmed to them (and the unemployment office notified me) that I was out of work again due to lack of work they are stopping my benefits.

I filed an appeal immediately and explained the situation and submitted the only proof I had, which was a string of emails discussing the ending of the contract, (speaking of proof, how do you prove that you are NOT working?!?! You can't prove a negative.) and I find out today that the appeal can take 21 days to process.

**head to desk**

One one hand, most of my benefits are going into savings so it isn't THAT big of a deal. On the other hand this is messing up all of our auto-transfers and making me consider cutting back even more on our budget. Assuming my appeal is approved I will receive my retroactive benefits, but that could be weeks away still.

We are fortunate in the grand scheme of things, but I still feel like crap and I hate that I am treated like a criminal by filing the weekly claims, jumping through their hoops (I had to take a math test, no joke, along with a few other ACT/SAT type tests, complete a career assesment, etc.) and now having to prove that I'm not working.

I'm an honest person and trust me, I would much rather be working!!!

brij2006 · August 2015

I'm sorry you're having to go through all of that.

I would honestly tighten up the budget entirely, and live on nothing. Just stock away money until you have secured a new position. This way if you do find something in 6 months or so, then you can just take that money that was put aside and pay off the HELOC (or put more toward it). If I remember right, you're also TTC right now. You wouldn't regret having that extra money put aside if/when you get pregnant. This way you also can feel a bit better if you run into this issue again and it takes time to fight the appeal.

AprilZ81 · August 2015

The good news is that we have the money in savings for childbirth expenses and to get the nursery set up. We have money put aside for any needed car repairs and servicing and a few other smaller savings accounts that we can use if needed. This is all without touching our emergency fund or any non-retirement stocks.

The only places we can really cut right now is our fun money, entertainment and our church giving (and our fun money and entertainment is at a minimum anyway). Those can be cut if needed I just hate to make drastic cuts just yet.

I'm just having a rough day and needed to throw myself a pity party.

vlagrl29 · August 2015

Sorry about all that! I know it sucks with appeals - they take forever when dealing with the government. We are still waiting on a decision from the ACA on our appeal regarding when the dropped us from insurance without even letting us know. The appeal can take up to 90 days so I'm not going to hold my breath that it would happen sooner. We have 2k worth of medical bills from when we though we were insured. Informed doctors so we won't go to collections. Its just a mess.

Xstatic3333 · August 2015

I'm sorry, that just sucks. I remember when H went through a similar job search a few years ago, and it really wore on him too. He had the same situation where he worked for a few weeks (a known contract job in his case) and it messed everything up when he needed the benefits again. Hang in there :-)

formerlyGDaisy09 · August 2015

Job searching sucks! H has done several bouts of job searching and there is just no way for it not to suck. When I was searching for my current job I was so stressed and was an emotional wreck by the end of it. H's current position is looking less and less like there may actually be opportunities for full-time and/or growth, so we know we're probably looking at another job search for him in the next year or so, but knowing how stressful it is we're delaying starting that until next spring and are just going to ride his current position out through the winter.

((Hugs)) you're doing the right things, but it's definitely not easy to be the one watching the money when jobs are in flux! hang in there! H always felt better if he was doing some productive projects around the house, he'd set a 2 hour limit a day on scouring the webs for jobs/filling out applications, and then he would find one of those projects around the house that we'd been meaning to do and tackle that.

brij2006 · August 2015

I know I'm not the "norm." But I'm still going to suggest to live on nothing and throw money aside for whenever baby happens. We only needed $5,500 for the birth of our DD, and spent about $700 total to get everything we needed for her. But we lived on nothing while pregnant and ended up with $23,000 in savings on the day she was born. Let me tell you, as a new mom when bringing that baby home from the hospital and we ended up needing to run out and grab things here and there that we didn't think of. I never once thought about the cost. That peace of mind of having all of that money sitting there was greater than having the extra fun money while TTC and pregnant.
Once we got the hang of the whole parenting thing, and all of her medical bills were paid and we felt comfortable, we took that money and applied it toward debt. But just having that money sitting there, that was 4 times more than we actually needed for her expenses, was the best peace of mind ever.

short+sassy · August 2015

((Internet hugs)), It is so frustrating! There are few things I hate more than looking for a job. And then to have the UE office be so difficult on top of that just adds to it. When I was on UE last time, I twice had troubles with them.

I also made the mistake of taking a part-time temp job while I was on UE. I reported my income for the couple weeks I worked there...but then the company in their immense stupidity (and they were abysmal all around) misreported the weeks I had actually worked.

My own UE office vent:

Before I got my current job, I was unemployed so long...first time in my life...that at 6 months I had to take a "look for a job" training class. You had to sign up at the front desk...completely open to every Tom, Dick, and Harry...with your FULL NAME and SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER. I was flabbergasted. Hell no. I just signed in with my name. Then I get to the class and they want everyone to use the sign up sheet...again with full name and social.

I approach the woman in charge and ask if I can provide my social to them later in a more private setting. She looks at me like I am a problem child and asks why I can't just put it on the sheet. I explain everyone in the class would then have access to my name/social, if they wanted it, and that is a huge liability for identity theft. I swear, she still didn't seem to understand what I was talking about.

Her response was to tell me only they have access to the list. I replied back by simply rattling off the name and SSN of the person right above me. The look on her face was priceless. She was super annoyed with me, but did let me provide it to them later.

AprilZ81 · August 2015

short+sassy said:

((Internet hugs)), It is so frustrating! There are few things I hate more than looking for a job. And then to have the UE office be so difficult on top of that just adds to it. When I was on UE last time, I twice had troubles with them.
I also made the mistake of taking a part-time temp job while I was on UE. I reported my income for the couple weeks I worked there...but then the company in their immense stupidity (and they were abysmal all around) misreported the weeks I had actually worked.
My own UE office vent:
Before I got my current job, I was unemployed so long...first time in my life...that at 6 months I had to take a "look for a job" training class. You had to sign up at the front desk...completely open to every Tom, Dick, and Harry...with your FULL NAME and SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER. I was flabbergasted. Hell no. I just signed in with my name. Then I get to the class and they want everyone to use the sign up sheet...again with full name and social.
I approach the woman in charge and ask if I can provide my social to them later in a more private setting. She looks at me like I am a problem child and asks why I can't just put it on the sheet. I explain everyone in the class would then have access to my name/social, if they wanted it, and that is a huge liability for identity theft. I swear, she still didn't seem to understand what I was talking about.
Her response was to tell me only they have access to the list. I replied back by simply rattling off the name and SSN of the person right above me. The look on her face was priceless. She was super annoyed with me, but did let me provide it to them later.

That is horrible about the SSN!

I just need to vent...

Re: I just need to vent...

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