Unemployment benefits story (sympathy or sob)

Gotcha. You here people all proud saying they were out of work for months but never too the unemployment.

I think. That's dumb. If your house burnt down, would you refuse to take the insurance check?

 

I've collected it twice. There wasn't a day during that time that I didn't apply for a job. I agree that there are a lot of people who say, "There are no jobs out there, why should I look?"

There are also a lot of people who don't start looking until they know their benefits are running out.

It shouldn't be that way, but it is.

 

I'm glad I read this whole thread. I'm 23, single (well I have a girlfriend), have a roommate, make $13 an hour and was having a self-pity day about how unhappy I am with my shitty job. Doesn't help that my shit car just crapped out again and I've decided to fuck it and just go with public transportation. My take home is about $408 a week, but I also get to use the bus unlimited for free through work, and I also get a free buffet lunch at work. My job is fucking painfully terrible, but it sounds like some people here would kill for it. I wish all of you the best, and I need to stop whining.

 

I should add that it took me over a year out of school to find that shit job.

 

I thank God every day that I'm employed. I definitely took that for granted until a couple years ago.

 

Here's a stupid question: Do you have to pay tax on unemployment?

 

That was my situation for slightly more than a year. The only jobs out there would have paid the same or less than I was getting from UI, which was less than $300 per week. So I took that and did some freelance work on the side, which got deducted from my UI payment. I managed to survive for about a year.

Just as my benefits were about to be cut in half --- to a level where I could not have paid my rent or bought food -- I landed my current job. Also, I should say that during that time period when I was UI, I was forced to run up credit card bills on basic necessities such as food and gasoline and I have no idea if those will ever be paid.

 

Yes.

You can either have them take it out of each check, or get taxed on it at the end of the year.

 

Around here, those are called crack houses. Rather live with relatives.

 

RELATED ISSUE i'm facing personally: after 32 years in the biz, and one of the few blessed and lucky enough to earn a pretty good salary, raise 3 sons in an excellent town with great schools, i will soon have to start to collect social security/disability insurance. with 1 child still under 18 for an extra credit, my disability income will be only 40 percent of my income in my last five years of work.

i've always paid my hefty taxes. worked my butt off until health blindsided me. but the sad -- and yes, infuriating -- part of this to me is my disability is legitimate shouldn't i believe i've earned more help for uncle sam? we cannot come close to paying the mortgage and taxes remaining on our house and will be hard-pressed to find an apartment to rent nearby so our youngest, a h.s. sophomore, can finish h.s. with the only friends he's ever knled own for 15-plus years. i'm heartbroken, panicked and yes, angry.

i know there aren't any answers. just wanted to vent and offer up that it ain't no cliche to say, 'health is everything.'

'cause without it we're all vulnerable to losing the good life we've spent a lifetime working so hard to attain. after a lifetime of good works we can all be humbled in no time. only one of the reasons i tried to never big-time anyone if they worked at a smaller paper. luck has far too much to do with success in this biz to big-time anyone.

and it infurates me to hear tales of people who seem to endlessly collect unemployment while never looking for a job. or tales of healthy folks inventing health issues/injuries to collect disability insurance.

P.S. -- by the way, when raking in the disability bucks, there is a limit on how much freelance you can do (for those thinking, 'well, just load up on freelance work.') the cap is about 800 bucks a month, which a) still wouldn't put a dent into our mortgage and b) i'm not healthy enough to depend on lining up....

 

Here is the answer:

Instead of people collecting unemployment checks every week or two weeks, have them receive a lump sum at the beginning of their unemployment period that covers the entire period for which they will be eligible.

If they find work, they can keep all the money they received in the lump sum, plus their new paycheck. So getting laid off would be like a windfall for them.

This incentivizes people looking for work.

Might some people still be lazy and live off the unemployment? Yes.

Might some people blow through the unemployment lump sum too quickly? Yes.

But if one major concern is incentivizing people to get back to work instead of sitting on their lazy asses watching "The Price is Right" all morning and afternoon long, this would do the trick.