General EUC Discussion - Ongoing

I was completely outraged after reading this:

http://www.workingamerica.org/blog/2010/04/06/fighting-unemployment-claims-a-booming-business/

As a Tier 4 99'er that has recently run out of benefits, I have been actively contacting my elected officials on the matter of a Tier 5...

From Republican Senator LeMieux, I have received ZERO responses...some surprise, as he is firmly in the GOP "Party of No, Tough Sh*t" camp.

From Republican Congessman Adam Putnam, I have received 7 replies confirming the message was received...and ZERO further response (obviously another GOP "Party of NO, Tough Sh*t" player).

From Democrat Senator Bill Nelson, I have received two responses dealing with Health Care Reform (?), and two reponses informing me that due to political gamesman-ship, further unemployment aid is being delayed....and on the 16th, the following:

Please do not reply to this e-mail. If you need to send another message to Senator Nelson, please use the form on his Web site: http://billnelson.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm#email

Dear Mr. XXXXXX:

Thank you for contacting me regarding an extension for unemployment insurance and COBRA benefits.

On April 15, the Senate passed an extension of both the unemployment insurance and the 65% subsidy for health insurance premiums under COBRA that passed last year in the Recovery Act. The people of Florida are hurting, and these programs provide desperately needed help to families who are trying to make ends meet. This extension provides much-needed relief to folks who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. This bill has been signed into law, and these benefits are now guaranteed through June 2.

I hope that in the future, Congress will be able to deal with these issues without the partisan political stunts we've seen in recent months. Thank you again for taking the time to contact my office, and please do not hesitate to do so in the future.

Sincerely,
Senator Bill Nelson

P.S. From time to time, I compile electronic news briefs highlighting key issues and hot topics of particular importance to Floridians. If you'd like to receive these e-briefs, visit my Web site and sign up for them at http://billnelson.senate.gov/news/ebriefs.cfm

OK, now I've checked out what this law actually says...and it DOES NOT ADD one single day or one stinking penny's worth of benefits to those of us in the Tier 4 or completely out of benefits all together...it merely extends the filing deadlines for those switching from state-paid UC to Federal UC, as well as allowing those in lower tiers to move to the next tier...until their total of 99 weeks is used up.

But just in case, Monday morning I'm forwarding this E-mail to Agency for Workforce Innovation Director Cynthia R. Lorenzo, so she can get "the word"...Senator Nelson has "guaranteed" my benefits...that should go over well!

But the deeper issue here is what I see all over the news, as well as what is implied in this note from Senator Nelson...the fact that the mainstream media is simply not reporting (or commenting on!) the over 2,000,000 American citizens that have totally exhausted their benefits and are facing homelessness, hunger, and devastating poverty...that number grows by over 7,000 EVERY day...while there are constant reports of Secretary of the Treasury Geither commenting about the "poor job creation" in today's economy...and Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank Bernanke's testimony to Congress about the "lack of job growth" putting the entire economy at risk...

We, the 99'ers, simply can not find jobs because there are none! Unemployment is RISING...State Of Florida's went UP last month...why can't anybody point out that the King is wearing no clothes or that there's a elephant in the bedroom...or that there simply isn't enough jobs to put over 8,000,000 people back to work again?

TIER 5 TO SURVIVE!!

I hate to sound like the grim reaper, but some of those figures you quote are actually low!

By June 1, FOUR MILLION will have lost or already now have lost all benefits. Over 400,000 are losing all benefits every month. There are over 15 million unemployed in this country, only about 11 million are on or recently exhausted benefits. That's not even mentioning the "underemployed" who cobble together a few part-time jobs, or those who gave up and took retirement benefits or moved in with family or went back to school, or both.

The figures that NELP put out some months ago referred to those "prematurely" losing benefits, and did not include those exhausting all tiers of benefits. "Prematurely" meaning those who were caught in the deadlines for eligibility and could not advance into the next tiers of benefits.

Congress needs to hear from LARGE NUMBERS of us to get them to do something!

I guess I am going to sound like the grimmer reaper, but THEY AREN'T LISTENING. We do not have the $$ to overcome the $$ that are being spent against us. I have slim hopes for the Fax Your Resume Day campaign. But slim is better than none at all. I urge all members to take part & obtain committments from everyone they have a connection with (family, friends, social network connections, etc. ) to take part. The most important agenda item to our elected officials is the next election. We must let them know that we are no longer apathetic. Remind them that it was US that put them in office. 2 yrs before Nov., 2008 NO ONE THOUGHT THAT BARAK OBAMA had a chance against Hillary Clinton & 18 mos. later, Joe the Plumber was supposed to float John McCain & Sarah Palin into the White House. Then the voters spoke. In the largest voter turn out in recent memory they got up off their butts and went to the polls & voted for CHANGE. I mention this not as a supporter of the Democratic party or the current administration. I just want to emphasize the precedent has been set & the more forcefully we remind our elected officials of that fact the more they will respond to the will of the people.

sc4ram wrote:http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/careers/sfl-ask-career,0,6220477.story

How is this relevant?
It's certainly not news.

Its printed Q&A about the recently passed extension, I thought I would share it with you since I believe it comes under the heading of EUC.

Anyone claiming today still not showing weeks paid from weeks claimed today? Unusually slow Ive heard, any luck either way?

Mine still haven't updated either... wonder if that means I won't be getting a check tomorrow?

frustratedinfl wrote:Mine still haven't updated either... wonder if that means I won't be getting a check tomorrow?

Confirmed yesterday that many people who had claimed weeks in the morning had been bumped a day for payments due to the system processing them as afternoon claimed weeks (post cut off of 1230) which means the weeks will not process till today

Gotta love that chitty chitty bang bang computer system...

FLORIDA **** IMPORTANT **** FLORIDA **** URGENT!!! **** PLEASE PASS IT ON!

[UIO, I'm deliberately triple-posting this in other threads to make it more visible right away.--nancym]

Anyone from Florida, PLEASE take action on legislation coming up in the Florida Senate tomorrow, April 21. Senator Gelber (D) is bringing up an AMENDMENT to SB 1736, a bill that would extend Extended Benefits in Florida through June 5 (or whatever that exact date is in the recent federal law).

Problem is, Congress will probably extend their 100% funding for EB further later this year, after the Florida session is over. So Sen Gelber's amendment would provide for accepting any 100% provided monies for EB that Congress subsequently enacts this year.

What this means is that anyone who did not get EB in Florida already (and possibly those whose EB was cut off last fall--I'm not sure about this part) would be able to apply for EB when their EUC benefits expire, or have already expired.

This action would do nothing for anyone who has already received the full weeks of EB last year, but it would affect thousands who would be eligible and bring a lot of money into the state.

ACTION:

Please call or email Senator Atwater, President of the Senate to tell him you support Senator Gelber's amendment to SB 1736 that allows for more months of Extended Benefits beyond the current cutoff in June if Congress votes for longer funding.

http://www.flsenate.gov/Welcome/index.cfm?CFID=201248695&CFTOKEN=48756914

Then please call your local Florida Senator to express your support as well. (You can follow the links on the left of the page if you don't know who your Florida Senator is.)

Please, everyone from Florida should be calling on this, even if it doesn't give you personally more weeks, since it will bring more help for the unemployed in this 12.3% state.

I learned of this just today from NELP's Miami advocate in the Florida legislature.

Thanks nancym. Will email right away. Hope you don't mind, but I cut/pasted your post into the Florida section of another site because they were discussing this very bill, and because your post is so well written. I excluded your name as well a link back to this site so as to keep it anonymous. Was that okay? If not, I'll go and remove it. Just thought that more exposure might help.

As I had recently received a note from Senator Bill Nelson assuring me that benefits were extended until June 5th, but upon checking AWI's website and seeing a zero balance yet again...I took it upon myself to forward Senator Nelson's commitment (in writing) to AWI, as I'm sure there simply was some mistake...

AWI's response was quite disheartening...

Still sure that this must be some great mistake, as I had a written guarantee from my United States senator...Senator Bill Nelson...I've forwarded the following to Senator Bill Nelson:

Sir,

While I thank you for your prompt response on April 16th, personally guaranteeing that in this time of dire need, the government would not toss the unemployed to the wolves, it appears that AWI (Florida Unemployment) believes otherwise...

I forwarded your e-mail dated April 16th to AWI and received the following response:

Good morning Mr. XXXXXX,

The recent legislation approved by the president extended the filing dates for existing extensions; however, the legislation did not create any new extensions. Upon reviewing your claim, I see that you have exhausted all regular, EB, EUC Tier I, II, III and IV Benefits available. Unfortunately, there are no further benefits beyond EUC Tier IV.


Yours Truly,

J. Genao
Agency for Workforce Innovation



This e-mail or any attachments provided may contain confidential information that may be legally privileged and is for official use only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and delete this message. If this e-mail message contains a forwarded message or is a reply to a prior message, some or all of the contents of this message or any attachments to it may not have been produced by the Agency for Workforce Innovation.


Now I'm sure there must be a major error somewhere along the line and as AWI doesn't beleive me (that you personally-in writing-have assured me that benefits in these tough times will continue...) I'll leave it in your capable hands to contact J. Genao of the Agency for Workforce Innovation and correct him/her's misconceptions, as I'm sure quite a few Floridians are also getting similar messages from AWI.

Thank you!

I am anxiously awaiting the Senator's response....

This is what we are up against. ...............

http://www.wptv.com/content/news/centralpbc/westpalmbeach/story/Unemployment-benefits-adding-to-job-seekers-lazine/Pvn0KrC7JUSFL0OVSGdO6A.cspx

Clearly a biased hand picked article. The job finder sounds disgruntled. There was no mention of how many of her clients turned down jobs. And so what if she's never seen benefits extended this long before. If the example client was getting 275 a week and tapping credit to make up the difference to pay bills. Then a minimum wage job twenty five miles away might cost her seventy five dollars a week in gas and tolls. That cuts her take home pay down to say 180 a week? Not to mention wear and tear on her car and ten to fifteen hours driving per week and zero benefits. Maybe she doesn't have the credit means to make up the difference. Why shouldnt she shoot for a better job? Maybe the job finder isn't that good at finding the right job for the right person. Personally, seeing that I'm getting 131 per week, I'd dig ditches for minimum wage and make out like gangbusters.

Jeff - I couldnt believe that a snooty West Palm Beach TV station would put this on their website. Where there might be a spec of reality in all of this "people wont work because they are on unemployment stuff", is if you saw one of my earlier posts a while back, you can really get penalized on your benefit amount if you take a part time job while on EUC (and get laid off) under certain circumstances. I could see not risking it if you were on the EUC full benefit amount .

We all know that when we claim weeks we have to certify that we did not refuse any work or offer to work during that week. I know that you can refuse offers if the offer meets certain criteria. Since the recruiter did not report the client I am sure the offer met the criteria. I hate when the media does not tell the whole story. Unfortunately, that is becoming the norm rather than the exception.

sc4ram wrote:Jeff - I couldnt believe that a snooty West Palm Beach TV station would put this on their website. Where there might be a spec of reality in all of this "people wont work because they are on unemployment stuff", is if you saw one of my earlier posts a while back, you can really get penalized on your benefit amount if you take a part time job while on EUC (and get laid off) under certain circumstances. I could see not risking it if you were on the EUC full benefit amount .

That's exactly why I'm only getting 131 per week. Took a part time job after thirteen years at my old job which folded. Several months later I almost lost the 131 because I worked a couple of days thru a day labor office while on unemployment. A reviewer called me and accused me of quitting the day labor job and said I'd have to repay all the benefits I had received. It took me fifteen minutes of repeatedly telling him that it was a day labor place and not a permanent position.

Seems to be a timely topic, I saw it debated on CNBC this morning . Video below:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1474674148&play=1

not sure where to post this

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-cfb-cover-unemployment-20100516,0,2734229.story

surfer wrote:not sure where to post this
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-cfb-cover-unemployment-20100516,0,2734229.story

thanks for posting this. i don't read or listen to the news much... where i live, burger king has a waiting list for a 20 hr a week job. winn-dixie, which is absolutely filthy here, has a hiring freeze and has the store manager filling shelves, working the cash registers and locking up. a lot of people have sold their horses (if ur a horse person, you know that's similar to selling a child -- it just isn't done), are letting mortgages go. Many are leaving Florida to move in with relatives.

Just a quick reminder to anyone claiming weeks today, since its a holiday, direct deposits will not post till thursday since payments will not go out until tomorrow late or wednesday.

Since my EUC benefits had expired and was paid for unused EB after reapplying, AIW did not direct deposit my payments. I received a check for 1 week on Saturday, and guess the other weeks and the $25.00 extra per week will arrive in the mail this week. They did not carry over my bank info because it was a new application.

This brief explaination was in my print copy of the Orlando Sentinel this morning. Whats not at the link but was in print today was the disclaimer "The benefits would be automatic, AFTER FLORIDA REPROGRAMS ITS COMPUTERS."
Dont forget this customary delay courtesy of AWI.


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/breakingnews/fl-unemployment-benefits-box-20100720,0,3132002.story