I go to check my bank account (which mind you has been looking pretty sad for a long time anyway) and I notice that my next to last unemployment check (which should have been direct deposited last night) isn’t there.
My first thought is oh shit the cap on the Oregon Emergency Benefits extension was reached –the employment department worker that took my information for the extension had warned me that could happen–and I am now up that well known tributary without means of propulsion.
One would think though if that was the reason that I would have gotten some notice via email or snail mail, so I went to check my snail mail. There was nothing but a bill from my miserable lousy rotten cable/internet/phone company (and there will be some blogging about THEM in a bit).
My next step:
I went to the Oregon Employment Department’s website to see if they’d had another budget driven day-long furlough–which would mean the employment offices throughout the state were closed for one day last week and when that happens usually the unemployment checks/direct deposits are delayed by one day.
Although there is one scheduled for tomorrow that won’t delay checks/direct deposits, there wasn’t one last week that would explain MY delay.
Then I checked the status of my check on the website and got this wonderful news.
“Your claim for the week ending April 10, 2010 has been received but not paid because of a problem. Information and instructions have been mailed to you.”
My assumption is that one of three things is wrong:
1) I filled out the online form to claim wrong (highly unlikely as they give you a second screen to verify your answers on, and I did verify before claiming),
2) they are going to try to say that I worked and didn’t report earnings (maybe in some alternative universe I worked, but in THIS universe I neither worked nor failed to report earnings from any work),
3) they are going to try to say that I didn’t look for work during the week I claimed benefits.
Hmmm, I would say that applying for 8 jobs in one week (when their requirement is 3 per week) and having an interview that same week certainly is looking for work.
I have each of these jobs detailed on an excel spreadsheet
By detailed I mean I listed the job title, company name, date applied, contact method used, contact person (if applicable),whether a cover letter was submitted or not, whether a resume was submitted or not, whether an application was submitted or not, and result of said application/email/resume/cover letter/etc.
In addition I kept copies of the emails I sent if the contact was strictly email.
I kept the confirmations I received in reply to online applications.
I kept any replies I received from hiring managers or hr departments.
So I can definitely prove that I looked for work if that is the issue.
However, their offices will be closed tomorrow (Friday), it will be at least Monday before I can do anything about this situation, and that’s assuming I get the snail mail from them tomorrow (Friday) or the day after tomorrow (Saturday).
Its just that this is one more stress that I totally do not need right now, with $134.00 in my checking account (and that’s all the money I have in this world) and no job.
This situation is pushing my panic button big-time, and pushing that panic button really takes a lot these days.