The Daily Tannenbaum The stigmata of the single life.*

From the draft pile of things I wrote before my company’s closing was public information.  This post was started on January 5, 2009.  Oh – and I just spent some time replying to all your comments this week, if that kind of thing interests you.

Unemployment.  You pay for it, and then it pays you when things get bad.  Back when I was freelancing, it kept me from being homeless.  This past November, our bosses agreed to officially lay us off since we were not getting paid.  Unemployment is half of what I used to make, but allows me to pay for my rent, car, utilities, and minimum credit card balance on time.  I’m a staunch advocate of not going into credit card debt, but while I’m making half of what I used to, it’s the only way I can pay for groceries and the other things that I buy from time to time.

For the past month, I’ve been dependent on this money.  I was expecting my next small check to be posted to my account on December 31.  It never happened, which I figured had something to do with the holidays.  Later that week, I got something in the mail asking for clarification on how much I made at my secondary job, a place I worked briefly during the spring.  I put the letter on my “to do” pile.  Later that week when I filed for my benefits, I still hadn’t been paid.  In five days, my rent is going to be late.

On New York State’s website, there’s a phone number listed that you are supposed to call if you file for benefits and have not been paid in three days.  Since it’s been a week, I called the number.

I went through five minutes of prompts before getting to the option where I could talk to someone.  Then thirty minutes of hold music with breaks every minute reminding me that the information I want may be available online (it’s not) and that New York State has the right to withhold child support payments.  When I finally got a person on the phone, she told me that my payments were stopped because I worked a second job, and I have to prove that I didn’t work at that job.  ?  I told her that I was not filing for unemployment against my part-time work at the bookstore, but from my primary job at the wholesaler.  She replied that “you can’t choose who you file from.”

So I sent in my fax with a pay stub from both jobs (people, I beg you, KEEP YOUR PAPERWORK!!! You never know when you might need it.)  I called back to see if they received my fax, and I was told that it went to the bottom of a stack of papers about 1,000 sheets deep, being that so many New Yorkers are currently filing for unemployment.  I was told that eventually my paper will reach my file, and at that time it will be reviewed, and then I either will or will not be approved for receiving my benefits again.

In the meantime, I cannot call to check on the status of my file, because no one there knows anything.  If they do decide that I filed in good faith, then I’ll get all my money paid in full.  If they decide that the eight hours I worked at that other job make me ineligible, well then, I have a whole lot of fun and hold music ahead of me.

So here’s the bottom line for all of you who might encounter a similar situation:

1. Never take a second job.

2. If you do, demand that they pay you under the table.

3. Keep every single piece of paper that you ever receive, unless you got your second job to pay you under the table.

4. Have like, a million dollars in the bank just in case you lose your job and then unemployment decides to screw with you.

5. Get a hands-free device for your cell phone so you can at least clean  your house or something while on hold for thirty minutes or more with the red tape menace.

6. Don’t get laid off.*

*I don’t want to hear that this is “out of your control,” you nation of whiners!

Best of luck!

- As of today, January 22, I am still waiting on my money.  My rent was paid for “out of my inheritance” a.k.a. gracious help from my supportive parents.  I called back again on Wednesday afternoon to see if any progress had been made.  The fax I sent HAD been put in my folder, but I was deemed ineligible because they thought I made less than $2,025 that quarter by a smidgen, because they were only looking at the pay on that one stub.  But it turns out that they were basing that on just ONE pay stub.  I had to send them another pay stub, an earlier one, so they could subtract and prove that I made more than the determined amount from one job.

The kicker of all this is that they  have to already have my tax info on file.  That’s how they determined all of these numbers in the first place.  But the burden of proof is on me to prove them right.  I’m really glad I keep my pay stubs, which made it easier, but I’m frustrated that I didn’t understand what they needed in the first place because I probably could have gotten this fixed much sooner.  As of this writing, my fax is at the bottom of 1,000 other pieces of paper, and I have to wait yet some more for them to get to me.  I’m ashamed to say I cried on the phone with them when I had my numbers all wrong.  I want to call back and save face, but there’s no way I’m going through 30 minutes of hold music just to talk to someone who has a job. All I can do is hope that the right person pushes the right pencil so I can yet again pay my own way come February.