General EUC Discussion - Ongoing

MiamiVice wrote:JUST IN!!! from Congress,,,Passed the defense bill together with the unemployment short term extension......

Seems like good news for all of us and for the extension of the 25.00 and the six extra weeks for us, right>???

Yes, that's good news, but it was just the House that passed it. It still has to pass the Senate, so it's not a done deal just yet. The $25 thing doesn't expire anyway until sometime later in 2010; the main benefit is getting the EUC program deadlines extended so everyone can access the next Tiers.

received another determination letter from AWI today via USPS. It was titled "EUC Tier ll Monetary Determination" it says I have 14 weeks of benefits. (The one I received on Dec 9 was simply titled "EUC Monetary Determination" and said I had 13 weeks total)

I just checked my claims info tab online @ AWI and it now says 14 weeks (minus the 4 weeks I claimed and was paid for last week) {it had previously said 13 weks]

Since I exhausted my EB in early Septmember does this mean anything? I have assumed all along that regardless of the pending Federal legislation that when I arrived to the point next year that my 13 (now 14 weeks) have been exhausted that AWI will give me another 6 or 7 weeks presuming the unemployment rate is still >8.5%.

Am I understanding this correctly ?

thx

sc4ram wrote:... I have assumed all along that regardless of the pending Federal legislation that when I arrived to the point next year that my 13 (now 14 weeks) have been exhausted that AWI will give me another 6 or 7 weeks presuming the unemployment rate is still >8.5%.

Am I understanding this correctly ?...

Nope, not the part about "regardless of the pending Federal legislation" anyway. This is the infamous "glitch" that we've been talking about. Federal legislation is needed to extend the entire EUC program eligibility deadline so that anyone can get into the tier beyond the one they qualify for by the Dec 31 deadline.

Though it doesn't seem logical, and in fact earlier press releases even from NELP said we would all be "grandfathered in" they had to clarify later that federal legislation was needed to allow anyone to advance in the Tiers. Even those running out of regular benefits can't get any of the tiers until the law is extended. That call for action from NELP recently posted in the "Senate bills...etc." section was for that reason.

The issue about the 13-14 weeks is simply a confusion caused by the fact that Tier 2 had a week added and we are getting 1 week from that tier before we get the 13 from the other tier, even though AWI's accounting of that is confusing to watch in our online accounts.

As for legislation, we still need to wait for the Senate. Hopefully this will be all straightened out before we all hit the end of our Tier 3 benefits around mid-February, or much earlier for some.

Thank you Nancy-

I was afraid of that but unfortunately not surprised.

The extension was attached to the defense bill for a couple of reasons the least of which is that the defense appropriations bill is a must pass bill F unding for defense expires on Dec 18 so the as I see it this bill must become law by Friday the 18th in order that the Defense dept does not run out of funding. I can't imagine the Senate not passing this bill ASAP like tomorrow at the latest Friday with the President signing before the funding exppiration deadline.

I think you are correct that the powers at be believe the Defense Authorization Bill will roll on thru without oppositoin (and I think that will be the case) .

However they are loading this thing up with a lot of extraneous stuff (like raising the debt limit which certaintly would NOT sail thru if it was a stand alone item) . If a Senator wanted to make a name for themself by opposing this (and there would be valid reasons for doing so, they could do it under the guise of supporting a continuing resolution (which would fund the DOD at last years levels) while they fight over the current bill.

I think those guys and gals up there are tangled up in their underwear sufficiently on the pending Health Care legislation to avoid such a scenerio.

I just heard on the news that Speaker Pelosi rammed this thru in a hurry so she could make a plane for the climate summit @ Copenhagen today.

Correction - they did not include raising the debt limit in the Defense Autohrization Bill just passed by the house. Summary below:

The bill will carry two-month extensions of the Patriot Act, unemployment benefits, COBRA healthcare aid for the jobless, the surface transportation authorization bill, Small Business Association loan insurance, flood insurance and current levels of Medicare physician payments, Hoyer said.

The legislation will also include $400 million for administrative costs for the federal food stamp program, an extension of the Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP) to help states plan their upcoming budgets and a 90-day extension of legislation allowing satellite television providers to carry local broadcast stations.

The House this week will also vote on a short-term continuing resolution that would allow government agencies to operate into next week. The current continuing resolution ends Friday.

The new continuing resolution is needed because the Senate, scheduled to work on the healthcare bill into the weekend, might not get to the Defense bill until after Friday

the Senate is about to take up the Defense bill as we speak....right now, today. They cannot let it go past the 18th or an expiration of Defense funding will occour, and no politician wants to mess with Defense funding during wartime..just my 2 cents

I am SO confused with all these "tiers", "EB's", "EUC's" ----- can somebody help me out with something?

My benefit year started 7/27/08, so I've been thru all those extensions. Monday of this week, I went online and claimed 2 weeks that were available. Later that day I went in to look at my account, and it said I was paid for 1 week and my balance is zero. I don't know how that can be. I did indeed get paid for only 1 week.

On Wednesday I checked my account again, and now it's showing I have 12 weeks available and my next date to claim is 12/28.

I left messages for both Melody and Cassandra yesterday at 877-846-8770 but didn't get a return call.

Can someone please help me out with where I am in this mess, and did the phone number change?

Many thanks,

Linda

I'm confused, I too received today a Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier II Monetary Redetermination notice. Its has the revises Available credits, New entitlement for Emergency unemployment benefits is $3059.00 however the remaining balance on the letter states only $227.00. I only received 4 weeks thus far. Is the account information online the correct balance or will I only be receiving the remaining balance of $227.00 per this letter.?

My EUC ll Determination letter (that I recieved yesterday per above) says my remaining balance is 1 weeks worth of benefits. If you look at Nancy's response to me (above) she says that thru this recent process we received 1 more week of EUC ll, therefore Im guessing that the remaining balance notation is for the remaining (new) week of EUC ll and the New Entitlement notatoin is 1 week of EUC ll plus what ever EUC lll weeks you were credited with.

hating politics wrote:I'm confused, I too received today a Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier II Monetary Redetermination notice. Its has the revises Available credits, New entitlement for Emergency unemployment benefits is $3059.00 however the remaining balance on the letter states only $227.00. I only received 4 weeks thus far. Is the account information online the correct balance or will I only be receiving the remaining balance of $227.00 per this letter.?

In general, these balances can be rather confusing due to the implementation of the new tiers, and the correct numbers should, in theory, come out in the wash in a few weeks I would guess. HOWEVER, I just want to remind everyone--if you are one of the people who received EB after Nov 8, those weeks of EB are subtracted from your EUC3 total weeks! This has been posted in great detail both in the EB thread and the revised "Sequence of benefits" thread, but just in case anyone here is in that category I wanted to make that point, since it carries serious consequences for those who were coming off EB later than the rest of us. (The result is getting anywhere from 1 to 8 weeks fewer benefits than might have been expected!)

News articles about AWI's ancient computer system have pointed out that it is quite capable of making errors; usually their chief complaint is overpayment errors. But if you really can't make sense out of the numbers visible in your account, I would try to contact one of the reps listed on this board; leave a message--if they're swamped it may take a while to get a return call, but they do return calls.

Even my own account appears to be messed up somewhat. I show the correct amounts paid and due, but I cannot claim for one week that seems to be overlooked by the paperwork and the online claim dates I've been given. So I have a call in to Melody as well.

I have now left 4 messages in the last 2 days and no one has returned my call.

I also received one of those odd summary letters today that says I have $275 balance. I can only guess that this is some kind of required determination letter for that one extra week of Tier 2, as has been discussed. So I wouldn't really worry about it, if that's the only thing out of order with your accounts. If your online balance looks correct, I would go by that. I'm just guessing here, but I think that's what's going on.

So I've been reading all these posts about the odd-ball account amounts, the odd-ball number of "weeks to claim", etc. etc., so I thought I'd add mine to the mix. Thanks to Cassandra (who called me last Saturday afternoon and who lovingly "pushed my application through), I was able to claim 4 weeks on Tuesday morning. (She warned me not to panic if I didn't seen an account update on Monday since the computers weren't going to process again until Monday night, so I wasn't surprised at having to wait until Tuesday.)

However, what I DID find odd, was that my "updated account" showed me as having available credit for ..... ready???? ..... THIRTEEN, yes 13, weeks. Not 14..... Not 1 week for Tier 2 and 13 for Tier 3 --- JUST 13!!!. After claiming my 4 weeks and a check being "processed," my account balance has -- get this -- TEN, yes 10, weeks remaining. Which obviously means that one of the 4 weeks I claimed was my extra Tier 2 week, yet my "available credit" (before the 4 week claim) was an amount for THIRTEEN weeks! (New math, maybe? When I was in school, 13-4 = 9.) I guess they just credited one of the 4 weeks I claimed as my extra Tier 2 week, and obviously it was WAY too much programming to have that week show in my initial "available credit".

Not a big deal considering SOME of the issues people are dealing with, but it further illustrates the "wack-a-doo" nature with which this entire extension has been mis-handled. While I understand the issue of our lovely state's out-dated computer system, THAT is not the problem. I am a technology professional and I can assure you - bad programming is the direct result of BAD planning, and most of all, BAD MANAGEMENT. I'm sure that's one thing we ALL can agree on - AWI management is amazingly deficient.

dplboc wrote:So I've been reading all these posts about the odd-ball account amounts, the odd-ball number of "weeks to claim", etc. etc., so I thought I'd add mine to the mix. Thanks to Cassandra (who called me last Saturday afternoon and who lovingly "pushed my application through), I was able to claim 4 weeks on Tuesday morning. (She warned me not to panic if I didn't seen an account update on Monday since the computers weren't going to process again until Monday night, so I wasn't surprised at having to wait until Tuesday.)

However, what I DID find odd, was that my "updated account" showed me as having available credit for ..... ready???? ..... THIRTEEN, yes 13, weeks. Not 14..... Not 1 week for Tier 2 and 13 for Tier 3 --- JUST 13!!!. After claiming my 4 weeks and a check being "processed," my account balance has -- get this -- TEN, yes 10, weeks remaining. Which obviously means that one of the 4 weeks I claimed was my extra Tier 2 week, yet my "available credit" (before the 4 week claim) was an amount for THIRTEEN weeks! (New math, maybe? When I was in school, 13-4 = 9.) I guess they just credited one of the 4 weeks I claimed as my extra Tier 2 week, and obviously it was WAY too much programming to have that week show in my initial "available credit".



Not a big deal considering SOME of the issues people are dealing with, but it further illustrates the "wack-a-doo" nature with which this entire extension has been mis-handled. While I understand the issue of our lovely state's out-dated computer system, THAT is not the problem. I am a technology professional and I can assure you - bad programming is the direct result of BAD planning, and most of all, BAD MANAGEMENT. I'm sure that's one thing we ALL can agree on - AWI management is amazingly deficient.

Now can we get this in a report form to submit to the governor and see if he can make some changes?

HR 3326 passed today! That means we can all advance to the next tier instead of being cut off at Dec 31! (No new tiers added to the EUC sequence, just extensions of the deadlines for existing tiers.) The new cutoff date is Feb 28.

Please see details in the EUC eligibility thread in this section, and the "Senate bills...etc." thread for tracking of the legislation.

MEEERRRY CHRISTMAS TO MY SWEETIES! INCLUDING UIO !!!!!!!!!!!

Well, i have a short question for anyone that has the correct answer......Will we, that presently started HR3548, or in other words Tier 3 in December, you know, , will connect automatically to the new approved extra six weeks?????????
I need to know so i can save with a lock those weeks because i don't see any relief in job opportunities and
the more i put aside the more rent and light will be able to pay as i am alone with no family. Thanks so much folks

I just went and tried to claim weeks, because it's the 21st (double checked the calendar) and now it says that I have no weeks to claim. Has that happened to anyone else? I guess its time to get back on the phone with AWI.

michelle wrote:I just went and tried to claim weeks, because it's the 21st (double checked the calendar) and now it says that I have no weeks to claim. Has that happened to anyone else? I guess its time to get back on the phone with AWI.

Good morning Michelle and welcome to the same boat I'm in this morning...it's the 21st and says no weeks to claim. I just checked another blog site and their is a person their with the same problem. I have a call into Cassandra already this morning....we need to get this handle TODAY.....Good grief,won't this nightmare ever end!!!!

Same thing here... What the heck is up with these people.. I have a balance yet "no weeks to claim" is what it's telling me.
I have a call in to Casandra too. I am also on hold with the 1 800 #.. just waiting, waiting and more waiting.. I sure wish they had better ON HOLD music!!

nachomama wrote:Same thing here... What the heck is up with these people.. I have a balance yet "no weeks to claim" is what it's telling me.
I have a call in to Casandra too. I am also on hold with the 1 800 #.. just waiting, waiting and more waiting.. I sure wish they had better ON HOLD music!!

Seems like CSPAN and AWI have the same music director. Let us know if you get a semi human on the line at the 800#. Maybe AWI's prehistoric computer is having a precenozoic moment. All jokes aside....we need this payment this week dammit. This bullshit is getting beyond old.

nachomama wrote:Same thing here... What the heck is up with these people.. I have a balance yet "no weeks to claim" is what it's telling me.
I have a call in to Casandra too. I am also on hold with the 1 800 #.. just waiting, waiting and more waiting.. I sure wish they had better ON HOLD music!!

well for all those who had no weeks to claim this morning, well they have come across another glitch in the system (no suprise there!) anyways I hate to tell you this, but it's time to get on the phone yet again with AWI so they can manually claim your weeks for you. (just got off the phone with them and that's what they had to do after verifying that there was nothing wrong with my claim for it not to allow me to claim this morning) easy fix yet a pain in the a** to get through with them as usual! Gota do what you gota do!

OK. here is what I was told... JUST KEEP TRYING ... supposedly they are updating the system and it should be done by 10:30 AM
Sounds like BS to me but what choice do we have but to KEEP TRYING. She did check my claim and it does indeed show that I have a balance and to claim on the 21st.. so I'll just KEEP TRYING !!

nachomama wrote:OK. here is what I was told... JUST KEEP TRYING ... supposedly they are updating the system and it should be done by 10:30 AM
Sounds like BS to me but what choice do we have but to KEEP TRYING. She did check my claim and it does indeed show that I have a balance and to claim on the 21st.. so I'll just KEEP TRYING !!

that's weird the guy I was on the phone with claimed my weeks manually they didn't do that for you?