Turmoil rocks jobless benefits agency

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Power plays at the expense of those in need.

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Turmoil rocks jobless benefits agency
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As state unemployment claims rise, troubles at the board that oversees appeals trigger a huge backlog.

By Patrick McGreevy
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

July 27 2008

SACRAMENTO — As rising unemployment floods the state with benefit claims, the agency that workers often appeal to for help is in turmoil, with accusations of rampant nepotism, alleged meddling by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political appointees, the ouster of a top official and a huge backlog of cases.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-unemployment27-2008jul27,0,7141289.story

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First of all people, this is simply more of the same fucking bullshit that has affected employees in all segments of society. In my particular case, if it wasn't enough to be fucked up the ass by LAUSD for over a full year in terms of not getting paid properly due to the BTS payroll fuck up, NOW as many hundred, if not thousands, of employees who work for the district, among others, are told to basically fuck off by the Employment Development Department because of neopotistic greed and satanic evil being perpetrated by the Governor's office to attempt to hijack the appeals board of the EDD, we have the answer to our questions as to what in God's name is going on.

Just to give an overview:

I work for LAUSD and our school, Hollywood High, has gone from year round to traditional which means that our job status changes just this particular summer from twelve months to ten. This means we are entitled to unemployment benefits for July and August of this year only. I filed a claim in late June, along with many of my co-workers, and submitted my claim forms. Over four weeks elapsed with absolutely no response from anyone. I began to get calls from friends and co-workers who know that I have experience with the EDD, having gone through three appeals due to administrative incompetence at the site level where I work. Numerous calls told me they either heard nothing, received incomprehensible mish moshes of notes that made no sense from the EDD, or were rejected outright, even though they have this special circumstances qualification.

I advised all of them to call EDD, which I needed to do myself as a month had passed without any response whatsoever, no idea if I qualified or was declined.

What a joke that turned out to be.

The Employment Development Department, for those of you who remember, used to have offices that we could go to and stand in line embarrased by shame at others seeing us, but getting our claims processed by real people. About five to seven years ago, this entire system was changed, replaced by a single 800 number call center to handle ALL the claims. This number began to become clogged, but you could still get ahold of someone. NOT ANYMORE BABY!!!!! Good fucking luck if you can ever get through to anyone on this line. The only thing you can do is listen to recorded information and check to see if you got paid or fucked up the ass.

After one thousand attempts at calling this number, I finally said eat my shit you motherfuckers, and started looking for alternatives. I opened my phonebook and rifled through it to see if there was a shred of any other number other than the fake crap they told us to call. I managed to call a number of the job development offices around the area. These apparently are set up to look for work, but also are connected to the EDD main system. I would get ahold of humans and tell them my problem. Most just hung up on me, or transferred me to the recorded number which ALWAYS says the same thing: a nice woman's recorded voice telling you that the system is overloaded and go fuck yourself.

Finally, I managed to reach a nice African-American woman in Inglewood at the State EDD job center who listened to my sad ass story and said she would help me. But not before another wonderful young African-American woman at LAUSD reached through a pile of forms backlogged on her desk and said "hey, here's your claim", and processed it with the help of three other people.

Unfortunately, my dire financial state required me to go down to the County of Los Angeles' Department of Public Social Services where for two full days I had to endure the indignity and ignominy of applying for food stamps with the deranged, homeless and meek of the earth...in other words the GOOD people of this world.

After going through the most rigorous screening this side of Communist China, I was told I didn't qualify for ONE SINGLE PENNY of food stamp help. I fell apart completely in front of the supervisor and demanded to speak to his supervisor, through the veil of my tears.

Then, I prayed. I prayed and prayed as hard as I have in years. I told God that no matter what happened we would be okay...NOT. I PLEADED with him to spare me in a terrified and wimpy ass lack of faith way. But I did turn it over..yes I did. Moments later the supervisor came back and said they had fixed the problem and I would be getting a full months supply of Food Stamps, no longer coupons but in the form of an EBT card that looks like an AMEX Gold Card, saving me the indiginity of being laughed at in the lines at Gelsons.

Later, I also was told by Paula...the good lady from Inglewood...that they had finally approved my Unemployment case and I would be getting a check sometime later this week. Only one week though, not two, because the first week is a waiting period.

A waiting period?

What the fuck am I waiting for? Who am I waiting for? What the fuck does that mean?

None of it makes any sense. Read this article though, people. You need to know. And if you don't, you better AKS somebody!