Attn: Unemployed & Tier 5 Extension Thread

[helpme2010]

Hello everyone, I wanted to start a post about unemployment and those who may be losing their final extensions. Hopefully some good dialogue, information, and ideas will come about.

I just found out I fall into the 99er crowd, which is those that have been unemployed since the recession started 2 years ago. At the end of this month, over a million of us are likely to lose our unemployment benefits. Each month after that, i'm guessing another million+ people will run into the same problem.

Congress has put up the S.3706 bill "Americans Want to Work Act", but it has stalled out so far. Now I fear with the republicans back in charge of the house, any additional extensions to unemployment will be blocked (perhaps unless the democrats can negotiate some type of compromise, such as giving the rich an extension to their tax breaks).

For those that think the unemployed are doing this on purpose to relax and not work, that is far from the truth for many of us. I have payed the price by going into foreclosure and will soon lose my house, I have filed for bankruptcy, I am hoping to get a job after discharge and be able to find a place to rent (hopefully not ending up homeless). I did earn my Bachelor Science degree during the recession, so this should open new employment opportunities for me.

Any thoughts about a bill being passed for a Tier 5 extension for unemployment benefits? It needs to pass between the week of Nov 15th - 19th or Nov 29th - Nov 30th when congress is back in session again, otherwise, beginning December 1st, millions lose their unemployment benefits

[Fallonedward]

My hubby just finished his 26 weeks and goes in next Monday to see if he gets approved for the 13 week extension. This is such a trying time and I'm very interested in getting these UI benefits extended

[researchnerd]

My DH is a 99er - he was laid off mid-2008 and his UE benefits expired at the end of May. We are pretty much resigned to the fact that they are gone for good. If they get reinstated, great, but otherwise we've done a major reset so we can get by on my income alone. In order to do this, like you, we've let our house go to foreclosure, we've gone through bankruptcy, cut back on a lot of stuff, and we're voluntarily giving up 1 of our 2 cars. It sucks, but it's just stuff. I am incredibly thankful that I still have my job, or we'd be homeless.

I like the name of the "Americans Want to Work Act," and I hope it gains some traction, for the benefit of others if not for DH. It really irks me when I hear people complain that anyone who is still out of work now that the recession is supposedly over "just doesn't want to work." DH has applied for literally hundreds of jobs, and he's had maybe half a dozen interviews, but no offers. It's soul-crushing to put yourself out there every day, only to be ignored and rejected. DH has a great resume and 20+ years of experience in his field, but he's just one of more than 15 million other Americans out there looking for work, and it's incredibly competitive, even for the crappy jobs. But hey, when I get home from work, my house is really clean and dinner is on the table

Congrats on finishing your degree, and I wish you the best of luck out there in the job market! It can only get better from here, right?

[dasherkin]

i feel for you, it's so hard out here. The unemployed needs to hold a rally, protest, light a fire under there a$$ to pass another extension

[discouraged]

It just irks me that people (like myself) who have worked for so many, many years now can't find jobs and they then want to stop the extensions??? What is going on in America? THEY (whomever the they are) allowed so many jobs to go overseas, while our people are begging for them. And now, after so many years of paying our taxes and being good citizens, we are criticized for not working.

It is not our fault that there are no jobs for us out there. It is just not our fault.

Maybe us elder workers should set up tent cities when the extensions end. If there were enough of us, they'd have to do something.

[tcreegan]

Any thoughts about a bill being passed for a Tier 5 extension for unemployment benefits? It needs to pass between the week of Nov 15th - 19th or Nov 29th - Nov 30th when congress is back in session ...chances are somewhere between fat and slim...the Senate bill is still in the Finance committee, no references to it on their website...and the House bill is even worse...mired in about 3 committees including Transportation and Infrastructure..that means it ain't gonna see the light of day...

Wish the news was better.....

Tom in Colo

[keepinitreal]

Indiana and Maryland are providing armed guards at all of their unemployment offices now, just as many people will be using up all of their unemployment benefits.

[Dee]

My husband runs out of benefits the week before Christmas (Ho. Ho. Oh, never mind...). So many of the jobs that were lost are gone for good and I doubt seriously that an extension to 99'er benefits would be passed, regardless of who has the majority in congress. Welcome to the "new normal". We are just going to learn to live on my income and sacrifice what we have to in order to get by. My husband is going to try working "commission only" after the holidays and see where that goes.

[Peeps]

Why would we need to extend unemployment benefits? Our Commander in Chief just spent millions & millions of dollars to visit the area of the world that soaked up all those extra (aka outsourced) US jobs and they've generously agreed to... buy 10 airplanes. Maybe. Problem solved. We can just put those millions of out-of-work people to work building ten maybe-airplanes and that will fix everything.


uh... just in case the sarcasm was too subtle, please don't bombard me with nasty-grams. I'm too busy living my lavish, country-club, let-them-eat-cake lifestyle to bother reading anyone else's opinion.

[helpme2010]

It's funny, I was raised with the philosophy that if you worked your butt off and volunteered for additional work outside your immediate responsibility, you would be rewarded with a secure job, raises, etc. But I have been the victim of 2 companies that sold off to other companies, including one of those companies that sued me for voicing my concerns as a shareholder on public message boards. These companies including one I worked for for 17 years making them the largest in their industry, simply threw us out to the gutter, losing 17 years of investment we made in the company and our careers. Stock options? They screwed us by keeping the stock price low for the several years we were allowed to exercise, so we were paid virtually nothing in the deal.

I would not even have filed BK had my mortgage company not cut my home equity credit line which I had always relied on when I lost a job to help hold me until I found a new job.

Regarding those of you that bring up outsourcing our jobs to India, this makes me think about those people that say people who are unemployed are lazy, yet if we are at a true 17% unemployment rate (which is the true rate, not 9.5%+), or if you say something like 1 out of 7 are unemployed, we have a true issue with the fact that around 10% of the people simply won't find work.

Have you ever gone on an interview and then a second interview with the company but one person simply got the job and you didn't. Perhaps you placed #2 or #3 out of 300 people, you ranked #2 or #3. So does that mean you are the next in line for the next interview? No, you simply start over with the next dozen interviews (after applying for dozens of unanswered jobs). And what about the people that simply rank #10 or #12, are we going to treat them like dirt because they aren't #1 in ranking? Not everyone can be perfect or be a winner; they simply want to work and put food on their table and enjoy some of the basic benefits of life that we all take for granted.

I am positive I will find a job by the first quarter of next year. I am just hoping the government will extend the benefits to help me put food on the table until this happens.

[Fallonedward]

I so agree, its very difficult to gain employment after 50, its like you are too old and should be sent out to pasture. The company I work for had 30,000 employes six years ago and they are now down to 900 in North America. The have outsourced the bulk of their jobs oversees all the while laying off thousands of employees.

My hubby spends 8 + hours a day at the library applying to jobs in addition to attending job fairs, UI classes, worker re training classes and the list goes on and on. My hubby has his MBA and never thought he would be in this position.

We as a country need to rally and get the politicians off their arses

It just irks me that people (like myself) who have worked for so many, many years now can't find jobs and they then want to stop the extensions??? What is going on in America? THEY (whomever the they are) allowed so many jobs to go overseas, while our people are begging for them. And now, after so many years of paying our taxes and being good citizens, we are criticized for not working.

It is not our fault that there are no jobs for us out there. It is just not our fault.

Maybe us elder workers should set up tent cities when the extensions end. If there were enough of us, they'd have to do something.

[Flamingo]

My hubby lost his job due to a merger in 2/01. We had to file in 4/02 due to the income loss. We learned from that in case a job loss ever occurred again for either of us. It did for my hubby again with this economy in March of this year and that was with a job for which he did a complete career turnaround as he could not find another position in his high-tech field and he used to travel the world and was in demand for his expertise. He just renewed his unemployment benefits. He is 58. He too cannot find anything and has been on several interviews, a few very promising, but it is obvious his age is the main factor as there are so many younger people out there unemployed who would take any job and have degrees out the whazoo. Those over 50 now who are unemployed may need to resign themselves to the fact that they may totally need to change careers and out of fields in which they have degrees, experience, etc. and try to get into the health care arena where the jobs will increase. Believe it or not, the funeral arena will be another boom area also. My hubby has a part time job along with his unemployment benefits which are adjusted to accomodate that and it is possible when his benefits run out that it could become full time. No guarantee. It is just a clerk job at a gas station from 11 at night to 7:00 a.m. two nights a week. We survive on my good salary and benefits and learned from our previous experience which saved us when we knew his job was in jeopardy and the nationwide business closing. We will be fine but I certainly understand and have been through the predicament and the hopelessness involved as to what to do or not to do.

Also if necessary people need to realize they may have to move in with family or go on public assistance if there are no jobs. The moving in with family is occurring like crazy right now and multi-generation housing is the new wave for construction out there due to all this. It's the times, it's the economy...there are many in the boomer generation arena who cannot yet even think about retiring or those younger who just cannot even get a job over the past few years and it's a major, major situation for some who may not have family or other options available.

[AngelinaCat]

Here is what is posted on the Florida website. This updated as of November 8, 2010:

UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION HOT TOPICS


Important Dates for Unemployment Compensation Beneficiaries

Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC)

* November 20, 2010 – Under current federal law, customers receiving regular state unemployment benefits must exhaust those benefits by the week ending November 20, 2010 to be eligible for additional federal EUC benefits.

* November 27, 2010 - Under current federal law, customers already receiving federal EUC benefits may be eligible for the next tier (EUC Tiers II, III, or IV) provided their previous tier is exhausted by the week ending November 27, 2010.

* November 28, 2010 - Under current federal law, whichever tier EUC customers are in as of November 28, 2010 will be the final tier for which they will qualify. While EUC customers will be allowed to complete their current tier, they will not be able to advance to the next tier.

* April 30, 2011 - Under current federal law, EUC benefits will not be paid after the week ending April 30, 2011.

* At this time, no additional EUC benefits have been enacted by Congress. Only the federal government can extend the EUC program.

* The Agency for Workforce Innovation will notify customers by mail when they receive their final EUC payments.

Extended Benefits (EB)

* November 27, 2010 - Under current law, customers who exhaust all entitlement to regular state benefits and EUC by the week ending November 27, 2010 can establish eligibility for EB.

* December 4, 2010 – Due to federal funding limitations, Extended Benefits (EB) will no longer be paid after the week ending December 4, 2010. Amounts remaining on customers’ EB accounts beyond the week ending December 4 will no longer be payable.

* The Agency for Workforce Innovation will notify customers by mail when they receive their final EB payments.

Federal Additional Compensation (FAC)

* December 11, 2010 - Under current federal law, FAC (the additional $25 weekly benefits) will not be paid after the week ending December 11, 2010.

* The Agency for Workforce Innovation will notify customers by mail when they receive their final FAC payments.

Updated November 8, 2010

http://www.floridajobs.org/unemployment/hottopics.html

[tobee43]

we are in the SAME boat as everyone else...we have 2 more checks left.....and we only had 2 extensions...but tons of them...

here's an interesting aspect:

once they terminate all the unemployment insurance what happens to the stats on unemployment????????? who's keeping accurate records NOW about the unemployment rate.

of course once WE are now UNCOUNTED what is that going to do with the unemployment numbers....ahhhhhhhhhh....let's see now...GUESS what they go down.....NO NEW jobs..NOPE...but once people are off the roles who's counting them in the unemployment figures.

when they stop the unemployment benefits ....which personally this family still have over 46k we contributed IN in the past 50 years....(i know many states do not have employee contributions but our state did)...we won't even get OUR own money back???

sooooo then all the politicians can now say...SEE unemployment was at 9.6% and now we are at 5%....because the other 4.6% are in the streets and in food lines....it's just a wonderful Christmas present to all....

just one added comment here...we are NOT customers of unemployment....we PAID in......for over 50 years........for insurance....

[AngelinaCat]

just one added comment here...we are NOT customers of unemployment....we PAID in......for over 50 years........for insurance....

I totally agree. I made some *interesting* comments as I read that while formatting the page for posting.