Original Blogger tags: The Situation 2013
I received word back (via paper mail) from the State of Michigan saying that my claim for 3 weeks of unemployment compensation, for the weeks ending April 27, May 4, and May 11 (see my earlier posts) is denied. The form I got back said I had it is found that “you did not report (certify) as directed and had no good cause for failing to report (certify).”
The cause I reported was that I missed certifying online by one business day because I was distracted by recruiters and interviews. In other words, because I was concentrating so much on searching for a suitable job. What would have been good cause, I wonder?
So, er, let this be a lesson to all you slackers!
It says I have the right to appeal in writing. Would there be any point to that, I wonder?
Note added in 2022, while editing these posts: Note that there was never any dispute over whether I was employed or had income during that period; I did not. I failed to meet my obligation to ceritify, by a few days. I find myself wondering what the actual point of such a disciplinary action is. My unemployment compensation was withheld as a punitive measure. Perhaps they believed that I needed a warning so that I would be more likely to comply in the future. But withholding this payment did not punish me, the unemployed person, in a vacuum. It punished my family and our community. We had less grocery money to spend, over and above WIC and food benefits. It made it more likely that we would default on my mortgage, fail to pay our utilities, and have to abandon our home, like so many others in Saginaw had to do. It accelerated the crisis and made our living situation less secure. Was that the intent? Was the punitive model effective at keeping workers working and communities functioning?