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sonia... is smaller in theory than in practice.
I applied for unemployment benefits when I first heard that self-employed people were eligible (in theory), on March 29. A week later, and a couple of weeks after that, I got the same email acknowledging receipt of my application. The system would accept weekly updates, but not really admit my case existed otherwise.
I applied again when I first heard that self-employed people had to follow a different process, on April 28. I was pleased that I had completed my 2019 federal taxes by April 15 despite the deadline extension, because they were required to prove my self-employment income. I uploaded the form and the taxes. I continued uploading weekly updates in the new format even though the system still wasn't really admitting my case existed.
Last Wednesday May 20, almost 2 full months after my initial application, I got a paper letter from the Unemployment Department. They admitted my case exists! They gave me a "customer ID"! I can now register for direct deposit in the system!
Infuriatingly, despite the fact that I uploaded my taxes to demonstrate that I am due the princely maximum of $648/week, they assigned me the lowest level of benefits, $205/week. That would still be nice with the additional $600/week from the federal government, except that I have made and reported more that $205/week every single week from online sessions, which means I get zippo, zilch, nada.
I immediately wrote them an email appealing the amount and asking whether they want me to re-upload my taxes and what else they need to verify my income. I also sent a paper letter with a copy of my taxes, since it's easy for emails to get lost. No response so far, of course.
On Saturday May 23, I got a stack of 9 envelopes from the Unemployment Department. "Checks!" I thought. Maybe they sent the federal stipend after all. Fortunately I had time to think about it while I finished eating my lunch, and indeed when I opened them it was a stack of denials for each week I had claimed benefits, with bonus "You did it wrong and need to restart your claim" for some of them.
I tried to call them yesterday, Monday May 25. At some point as I wended my way through their exceedingly slowly spoken phone tree, they mentioned that deposits would be delayed for Memorial Day. Hmm... Sure enough, way out on a far branch of the phone tree, I reached an announcement that their offices are closed. I started trying today shortly after 8am and got busy signals every time.
So today I am trying to figure out what they might want to restart my claim. Of course there are no instructions for that for self-employed folks. Apparently they didn't imagine that we might keep working a little bit as best we could, and GOOD THING given how long it's taking to turn theoretical benefits into dollars in a bank account.
I am so grateful that I have the resources to weather this. And I am so frustrated that having done everything according to their process as best I could, and waited patiently all this time, I'm still not getting what's due to me. Who knows if I ever will, or if they'll l continue to be unreachable by phone and do things wrong on the back end.
(The couple of people I've chatted with about this have immediately jumped to talking about the poor overwhelmed unemployment department workers. Just... don't.)
I applied for unemployment benefits when I first heard that self-employed people were eligible (in theory), on March 29. A week later, and a couple of weeks after that, I got the same email acknowledging receipt of my application. The system would accept weekly updates, but not really admit my case existed otherwise.
I applied again when I first heard that self-employed people had to follow a different process, on April 28. I was pleased that I had completed my 2019 federal taxes by April 15 despite the deadline extension, because they were required to prove my self-employment income. I uploaded the form and the taxes. I continued uploading weekly updates in the new format even though the system still wasn't really admitting my case existed.
Last Wednesday May 20, almost 2 full months after my initial application, I got a paper letter from the Unemployment Department. They admitted my case exists! They gave me a "customer ID"! I can now register for direct deposit in the system!
Infuriatingly, despite the fact that I uploaded my taxes to demonstrate that I am due the princely maximum of $648/week, they assigned me the lowest level of benefits, $205/week. That would still be nice with the additional $600/week from the federal government, except that I have made and reported more that $205/week every single week from online sessions, which means I get zippo, zilch, nada.
I immediately wrote them an email appealing the amount and asking whether they want me to re-upload my taxes and what else they need to verify my income. I also sent a paper letter with a copy of my taxes, since it's easy for emails to get lost. No response so far, of course.
On Saturday May 23, I got a stack of 9 envelopes from the Unemployment Department. "Checks!" I thought. Maybe they sent the federal stipend after all. Fortunately I had time to think about it while I finished eating my lunch, and indeed when I opened them it was a stack of denials for each week I had claimed benefits, with bonus "You did it wrong and need to restart your claim" for some of them.
I tried to call them yesterday, Monday May 25. At some point as I wended my way through their exceedingly slowly spoken phone tree, they mentioned that deposits would be delayed for Memorial Day. Hmm... Sure enough, way out on a far branch of the phone tree, I reached an announcement that their offices are closed. I started trying today shortly after 8am and got busy signals every time.
So today I am trying to figure out what they might want to restart my claim. Of course there are no instructions for that for self-employed folks. Apparently they didn't imagine that we might keep working a little bit as best we could, and GOOD THING given how long it's taking to turn theoretical benefits into dollars in a bank account.
I am so grateful that I have the resources to weather this. And I am so frustrated that having done everything according to their process as best I could, and waited patiently all this time, I'm still not getting what's due to me. Who knows if I ever will, or if they'll l continue to be unreachable by phone and do things wrong on the back end.
(The couple of people I've chatted with about this have immediately jumped to talking about the poor overwhelmed unemployment department workers. Just... don't.)
