Call It What It Is: Unemployment Office

In order to be politically correct, we refer to the state office that is supposed to help people find work, as the Employment Security Commission or ESC.  The ESC is where you go to file for unemployment benefits when you lose your job for any number of reasons. When you arrive you sign in and wait and wait and wait. Eventually, you will be called by an employment coach or counselor. They will take all of your contact information and then ask questions to determine what kind of position you are suited for. Once this is done they match you with a series of occupations, each assigned a numeric code. Using the assigned occupational codes they can now search for openings in those particular fields.

If all goes well, they will actually give you a couple of leads and you can begin your search for that new career.  What usually happens, is you will apply to the selected companies along with multitude of other clients they sent there before you.  You will then go home and begin your own job search using the local paper and the internet. 

When and if you find a job, it will be due to your own efforts and not those of the Employment Security Commission or as I prefer to call it ” The Unemployment Office”.  The reason I prefer unemployment office is that as long as you are depending on them to help you find work, you will remain unemployed.

After the initial visit you will be told how to call in each week to get your weekly check. Beyond that you will receive a monthly notice to report to the unemployment office and update your file. This generally takes about 45 minutes to an hour. It takes two minutes for the counselor to verify that your information is current. The rest of the time is spent waiting to be called.

This is how the system works. They do not help you find work, they simply issue your weekly benefit check and verify your contact information once a month. This is their job and they get paid pretty well, not to mention all the state benefits and holidays they get.

I know all this from my own experience and unfortunately, both of my sons are now going through it. They are supposed to help you with retraining as well as finding work but the system is so screwed up, I’m not sure anyone really understands what  to do. After months of being out of work Tommy and Joey, both asked about retraining opportunities. It seems that what they do is provide additional training in the career you currently CAN’T find work in. Let me clarify, Tommy was laid off from a customer service position in the insurance industry. He had been looking for months for a similar or better opportunity. When he couldn’t find one he asked the unemployment office about retraining. They said they would help him with classes in customer service. WHAT?

Anyway, that’s the way it works. You have to follow the rules and make the monthly appointments of they cut off your check. But, if you really want to find a job you have to work at it on your own. Although the local paper and the Internet will be key to your search, letting everyone know you are looking can come in handy as well.

So good luck and hang in there. Remember, finding work can be a full time job in itself.

Some People Have No Business Having Children

If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, then you know about my grandson Jaden and the battle between his parents. To refresh your memory, my son Joey has been trying to get a valid legal agreement for about three years (Jaden is 5). Joey hired a lawyer, Dickie Jones in Sumter, SC, to represent him and after taking over $8,000 of Joey’s money, Mr. Jones dropped him when he became unemployed. Now he says it will cost an additional $2,500 to get a final agreement. Well, Joey has been unemployed since his layoff in August of 2008.  Obviously, he cannot afford to continue the case at this point.

That puts Jaden’s mother in control. Now, Jaden’s mother and Joey were never married, so this is strictly a custody dispute rather than part of a divorce. The reasonable thing to do, would be to come up with an agreement they both could live with and get it blessed by the courts. In fact, Joey has written just such an agreement but can’t get Jaden’s mother to sign it. The agreement he came up with is based entirely on the almost complete agreement they had before they were both forced to release their lawyers, due to an inability to pay.

Recently, Jaden’s mother attempted to file a case to enforce child support with the Department of Social Services. When the hearing came up she chose not to appear. Since Joey had documented proof that he had been paying child support, even before Jaden was born,  and that he was paying the proper amount, the case was dismissed. Joey was also able to prove that he had paid for Jaden’s mother to take classes to become a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) in order for her to better provide for Jaden and herself. Unfortunately, she is extremely lazy and only worked for a couple of months. She also didn’t like the fact that she had to touch sick people. That’s not surprising though, since we’ve know her, she has had several jobs, none of which lasted more than a couple of weeks.

The biggest problem I have with all this is the obvious lack of interest she takes in her son’s feelings. Jaden loves his daddy very much and loves to spend time with him. However, since his mother is in control here, she allows Jaden to visit his father only when it’s convenient for her. Long periods of time go by when Joey can’t speak to his son because her phone is shut off or she just won’t return the calls. Often, she will send text messages back and forth cussing at Joey and calling him names instead of just letting Jaden talk to his Dad. When Joey does see Jaden, he often comes down dirty and not properly dressed for the current weather.  

Joey has tried to work out custody through DSS, but they say that they don’t get involved with that. He has also contacted child advocacy groups who tell him that unless the child is in danger, there is nothing they can do. We don’t really know the situation, since we don’t even know where they are living. I do know that Jaden is left with other relatives and friends a lot. I know that she doesn’t give him vitamins. I know that she gives him Mountain Dew rather than orange juice. We have also heard that she has taken Jaden with her to buy pot and we know she loves pain killers.  She’ just not right in the head. Need proof? Consider this: about four months ago she took Jaden out of pre-school, supposedly because they were moving to a different district. She never informed the school, who thought Jaden simply stopped coming. Two weeks ago, Joey gets a call from the school saying that Jaden’s mother had dropped him outside and left him and wanted to know if Joey knew anything about it. Jaden’s mother left Jaden outside the school by himself after not attending for four months. What kind of idiot leaves their child on the street at a school he hasn’t been to in four months? At the very least she should have taken him inside and explained what was going on. Fortunately, Jaden’s former teacher noticed him and took him inside while they contacted his mother to come and get him.

As you can probably tell, I’m pretty angry about what my son and grandson are going through. I get really upset when I try to image the thoughts going through Jadens’s head as he stood on the sidewalk in front of the school. I remember a couple of weeks ago, after Joey had been trying for more than a week to speak to Jaden, he was finally able to get the mothers boyfriend to let him talk to Jaden. Jaden’s first words to his daddy were, “Where have you been Daddy?”. This really hurt Joey and again I can only imagine what was going through Jaden’s mind.

Well, Joey keeps trying and the drama continues. Maybe soon he’ll be able to get back to work and then get the lawyer back on track. In the meantime, if you know of any resources that might help, please let me know.

Getting an Income Tax Refund? Pay Yourself First!

Well, my income taxes are done for another year. I finished it all last night, filed electronically using TaxCut and every penny is spent. As usual I was disappointed with the amount of return considering I pay taxes from two jobs and a military pension. I can’t seem to catch a break.

Something is better than nothing and at least I feel like I’m getting a little gift around this time each year. Fortunately we will be able to take care of a couple of things that we have been putting off for awhile. If you are like me, the economy has taken a bite out of your resources. Pay cuts and lack of cost of living raises have hit hard. The price of everything we need continues to go up and services become more expensive with less and less benefit.  Maybe I’ll look for a third job so I can go out to eat once in awhile or go to a movie.

I’m sure you are in the same boat and I feel for you. However, if you do manage to get a small (or large) refund, make sure you take care of your needs before your wants. One thing you NEED to do is start preparing for continued economic struggles. So part paying yourself a little each week in the form of savings and then take care of the necessities.

Once you have all that taken care of go to the links on the right of this post and check out some of my shopping sites. There are all kinds of electronics, furniture, carpets, health items and others that you may find useful.  If you don’t see what you want immediately, use the Google search bar at the top right of the page to look for other sources.

OK!! Since I have some time before the refund is in the bank, I’m going to start organizing my folders and files for next years income taxes. Good luck with your taxes this year, for most of us there aren’t many changes. I checked the top ten software products including Turbo Tax, H&R Block, TaxSlayer and narrowed it down to TaxCut just like last year. It was based on ease of use, information provided, import of last years information and of course price. There the research is done for you. Good Luck!!