I want you to know something in the government still works!
The Governor of Washington Chris Gregoire's office responded to my email plea regarding the unemployment problems I encountered with a call today from a real live person, Mr. Mike Lundstrum. Mike is an interstate laison for the unemployment program here in Washington. He is following up in minute detail to get both Washington state and California state to pay me the back payments owed to me for my unemployment claims from both states.
Due to California's archaic paper forms process, and internal online form screens and Washington's oversight in informing both me and California of my valid claim I was not paid unemployment for some months. We don't even want to imagine what handling all those millions of paper forms is like in California.
Mike said he is "like a dog with a bone on this sort of thing and won't let go until it is resolved." I am not sure how much I will be paid finally, but it should be something more than a month of unemployment and it could be two months plus worth.
There is an additional so-called waiting week in my California claim that I will not be paid - and what exactly are we waiting for kids? - that waiting period in all states should be abolished in IMHO. Why put up with "we've always done it that way" as an excuse?
Mike has also notified the California Federal Extended Unemployment program that I am qualified, if we reach that point. I was hoping his call was someone offering me work, but sadly "no", he said, he "was not that person". He did however suggest that the state of California hire me to get an online claims system up and running, hen hen hen.
Now, to figure out what happened to the school loan deferment forms I requested two weeks ago so I stand a chance in heck of returning to the UW with a loan.
Then, on to untangling the credit problems created by the auto-fraud detection and auto-payment software programs at Bank of America that ate my credit card and accounts, canceling my account, charging me for the late auto-payment that it did not make, and then dooming my credit without my ever missing a payment in 10 years. Shame on you Bank of America for canceling my credit for your own software mistakes and claiming it was because I was unemployed!
My new Virgin Mobile phone setup triggered the fraud detection software at BoA, because the phone, purchased from Best Buy was not registered in the Virgin database. Ok. Days of boondoggle wasted time and energy. Good luck getting the "customer service" at BoA to listen to the words coming out of my mouth. When I call again I will be Rambo - armed to the teeth.
I have lived on the edge many many times in my life, with increasingly great faith, but this last 2 or 3 years, even I have to admit has been a wingdinger, a real cliffhanger, and I can hardly wait to see what happens in the next installment -- like a child afraid of the boogieman under the bed, up late at night watching TV.
I know I learn more this way, but WHOA.
PS for those of you who have never been poor enough to qualify for foodstamps or other aid, I discovered that programs to help the poor provide only for landline based phone service, not cell phones. So I wrote a number of our representatives about fixing that antiquated oversight.
The real poor live out of their car, or public sleeping cots in group shelters, or on the street - they don't have the luxury of a residence - where are they going to put a landline -- in their pocket? and if We The People are going to help provide homeless and needy with phone service they should have cell phones because that is what makes sense.
Anyway - Cheers!
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