Before I applied for unemployment, I had a lot of misconceptions about how it worked. Mostly what I knew was from what I saw on TV and movies, which likely had an accurate reflection of how unemployment used to work.
I had this image that I was going to have to show up at the unemployment office in Downtown San Diego once a week and my head bowed down in shame for not being able to find a job. I would have to tell the person behind the counter that I had tried looking for work in the previous week, give them the information of where I applied and wait for a couple of hours for them to cut me a check. This was a process I was not looking forward to, but knew it would be necessary if I wanted to pay rent, eat and buy gas to drive around looking for work.
I found out soon enough that I wasn't going to have to go through all that trouble. All I had to do was fill out a form every two weeks, mail it in, and I would get a check in the mail the next week. I also wasn't required to provide the names of the places where I had applied for work. That meant that I didn't really need to try to get a job. All I had to do was say I looked for work and they didn't seem to care whether or not I was telling the truth. I should point out that there's a worksheet on the back of the form to list potential employers, but if they don't put an "x" in the box on the front of the form, you don't have to fill it out. I certainly went many weeks without filling out an application.
But that wasn't as big an adjustment to make. The largest misunderstanding I had about unemployment was the amount of money I would be receiving. When full-timers got fired from the radio station in Clovis, NM, I was told that they would still receive a salary for unemployment for six months. I thought this meant that I would be getting my full regular salary during the time that I was unemployed. Since I no longer had dependents and would be paying about $100 a month less for rent because I was moving in with a roommate, I thought I would be able to catch up on all my bills and be debt-free before I absolutely needed to have a job. As usual, I was wrong. SO VERY WRONG!
When they told me I was going to get about $148 a week, I started freaking out. That would be less than $600 a month. It was about half of my regular take-home pay. My rent alone was going to take up half of that. I wasn't going to be able to pay all my bills. I was supposed to pay the IRS $600. Before I got fired, I had arranged to pay $200 a month. I had to call them up to arrange to change that amount to $50 a month. I also had an enormous credit card bill that went out of control from the people who used to live with me. My minimum payments were $200 a month. I had no idea what I was going to do.
This was probably the biggest inconvenience of unemployment, but it would be better than not getting any money at all. However, there were some minor inconveniences. The first was that phone interview I was supposed to take part in. I had scheduled it for a specific day after I had returned from my impromptu vacation. I was told that I needed to be by my phone between 10am and 12pm. I waited, waited and waited. I did not get the phone call until 11:55am. And all the interview consisted of was verifying all the information I had written down when I first applied for benefits. I had to wait two hours by the phone for this? On top of this, EVERY PERSON I talked to who went on unemployment around this period said they had the same thing happen, that they got the phone call only during the last 5 - 10 minutes of the two hour period they were told to wait. It made me wonder if they just figure out how many calls they have to make, and if it's not a lot, they just wait until the last possible minute to start calling people, hoping that many will just give up after waiting an hour and 45 minutes. When I had to apply for unemployment in 2009, I was glad I didn't have to go through that phone interview.
And a slightly more than minor inconvenience is the first unemployment check you receive. I have to admit that they put all over the paperwork that you only receive one week's worth of benefits on that first check, even though the form you filled out covered a two-week period. But it still doesn't prepare you for getting only half of what you were expecting. This was also the case in 2009. I would have rather they send out the first worksheet that covers only one week and make it clear that you won't get any money for that. After that, they send you the two-week form and you get the full amount with that. I was expecting $296 with that first check and planned to pay some bills. With only half the amount, I would have to be at least two weeks late on most of them. I would have rather try to put off those bills for one week and receive the full amount because requesting a two-week grace period was seriously asking too much from my creditors.
I was glad I had already put in my one-month notice on my apartment and made plans to find a roommate. I would have been in real trouble if I'd decided to stay put because I thought I was going to get my regular salary. That would have cost me at least an extra $200 before I realized that I needed to drastically cut my expenses.
I was fortunate that I only had to be on unemployment for about three months before I found some work. Since the two jobs I got were part-time, I was still able to receive unemployment for about another month before I made too much money at them to qualify for benefits anymore. The only bad thing was that, at the end, unemployment indicated that I still had about $1,200 left over for benefits that I wouldn't be receiving. My thought was that, if they were prepared to pay me that much for not working, why didn't they just go ahead and give me all that money anyway? I know that's not the way it works, but I'll bet everyone who's ever been on unemployment wishes it did work that way.
This experience made me not want to get on unemployment when I found myself laid off from a job I had eight years later. This happened in November of 2001. I did call the unemployment phone number. The recording that came on at the beginning said that unemployment benefits were set to increase after the first of the next year, but if I applied for benefits right away, I would only get the current rate. I decided to try to find some seasonal work to carry me through. Fortunately, that turned into a full-time job and I never had to apply for unemployment. I was glad. Even though I was barely making above minimum wage, I was still getting more than what I would have gotten if I was receiving unemployment.
I found that unemployment benefits do work when I'm in a bit of a pinch, but I'm always better off working.
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