The Trials and Tribulations of the Unemployed in Colorado
Filed Under: personal
I filed for my first unemployment payment a little over a week ago (Sunday, to be precise). I have since waited not-so-patiently for the money to arrive in my account. As of writing this post, I have yet to see a dime of it.
I have called repeatedly to get a status from the automated system over the past week. Each time it simply says that my payment hasn’t processed yet. It’s no surprise that the payment system is under siege right now. Thanks to the Bush Crash, we’ve got more people out of work than we have had for quite a long time even in a relatively stable state like Colorado. Idiotically, there’s no way to check your payment status online, so I am forced to call the system over and over again. Today, I can’t even get through. I want to know if there is a problem so I can sort it out immediately. But I have no way of knowing.
It shouldn’t take a week to process a payment. Not in this era of automated deposits. People are relying on that money to pay their bills and feed their children. In our case, we have a little savings to get by on while we wait, but each time they do this, our buffer against what I call “The Cardboard Box Life” gets a little slimmer. And we’re better off than most. I can’t imagine how a single parent is handling this system.
Filing for unemployment in the first place is humbling and embarassing. I felt humiliated to do it, and everything about the process treats you like a suspect in a criminal case. The least they could do is make sure we receive our payments in a timely fashion. We’re not talking about walking-around money here. We’re talking about rent and prescriptions.
Colorado government, get your act together. Speed up the payment process. Use some of that stimulus money to hire some of the unemployed to bolster your ranks in the department. Do something. A lot of people are hurting out there, and you are failing them. You can do better.
Hopefully I’ll land this freelance gig for March and I won’t need to collect unemployment for the month of March. It’s ridiculous how few jobs I am finding lately for which to apply. Again, I say to you my most excellent readers, if you need a website built, or know someone who does, please contact me. (Yep, turned that post into a whoring post. Many of my posts are going to end this way I am afraid).
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