Update: Filing for Unemployment

I’ve spent the last few days sick with a nose that resembles Niagara falls and a pounding in my head that’s just not pretty… but I’ve been meaning to post an update about my husband’s employment status, so alas, here we go.

In case you missed it, check out "Temporarily laid off" for the back story.

After talking with his HR department before we left for our trip, we found out that A) its legal for him not to come into work for however long they desire because they can just change his employment status, and B) we can file for unemployment since they will change his employment status if contacted by State.

The only hiccup with applying for unemployment is that SCB has only worked for them for a short while. According the time tables posted on the state website, we won’t really benefit from Unemployment unless we file after January 1st so his income from October, November, and December can actually count. Otherwise we are attempting to use his “seasonal” employment from Labor Ready and a month or so where he was working for his current company… and we aren’t sure that his Labor Ready work would count towards any benefits at all since its seasonal and temporary.

So knowing we needed to wait till after the 1st took a lot of pressure off our shoulders. It allowed me to research a bit more about the process without stressing. We found out that it takes a week or so to process any UEI claims after you file. Considering we had to wait till the 1st and then the week to 10 days for processing, we decided we weren’t going to file for UEI if SCB would be back to work by February 1st . It just wouldn’t make much sense for us to do it for 1 or 2 checks considering our budget and the fact that we could get by. Yes an inconvenience, but we have been careful with money and savings in case one of us were to lose our job.

So I had SCB call his HR rep on Tuesday to see if they had a date for him to come back to work…

And they didn’t.

He’s been off work since December 9th and it’s almost a full month later and they don’t have a date for him to return…  His HR rep contacted his supervisor to go one step further and see if he had any information about it, but he hasn’t a clue when any of the guys will be back full time and no one had contacted him to do a single day since the notice went out.

If we are going to file for UEI, it’s now or never. While we can keep a roof over our heads and food on the table with my income alone (its tight and there isn’t a buffer at all if something unexpected happens) but the fact of the matter is that we CAN do it. We can get by… so is it morally right for us to apply for UEI?

I normally wouldn’t have questioned it, but I was listening to a Dave Ramsey call the other day on his radio show where a woman was collecting UEI while her husband made a sizeable about of money and they weren’t really hurting. It didn’t go over very well for him to hear that she was collecting when they didn’t need the money.

Part of me is hesitant to apply because WE CAN pay our bills and eat at the moment… but what I worry about is the “what ifs.” What if this lasts a few months longer and then UEI won’t be an option down the line… What if he needs to find a new job because it’s not really “temporary” and the place he works for is a load of dung? Since we have only just started the process of clearing my  hubby’s record, finding a new job is hard. It took him MONTHS to find this one that he does have…

So we applied.

We decided that instead of adding any money that SCB may get from UEI into our budget we will put it into savings. That way it’s there in an emergency and I don’t feel like we are taking advantage of the situation and increasing our lifestyle on the backs of other people.

The Nano second we get the notice that his misdemeanor is sealed (which should take a few months minimum), he will get to applying and looking for a new permanent job so we aren’t in this position again.

Until then, its back to Labor Ready and hoping to get a day job while he waits for his work to call him in.