I would like to win Powerball.
Shortly after I made my last post, I was able to finally get through to the department of labor to figure out if I could get my benefits extended, since as a student it’s difficult to actually find a place that will accomodate my hours and give me decent pay. Of course, because nothing in our lives can go right for us, I’m not eligible for any more benefits until June, which leaves us with nothing but Eddie’s pay to get by.
What does that mean for us? Well, it appears as though we have 2 logical choices. Option 1, I drop out of school and go back to work full time, thus giving up the $3000 or so I’ve already paid for as well as having to still pay back about an equal amount in loans, or option 2, I stay in school and we attempt to pay for $2000 worth of bills with $1300 in pay. Personally, I’d rather not drop out, since I know that I’ll never end up going back and I feel like this is my last shot to actually make something of myself. On the other hand, I kinda like having a roof over my head.
I asked the woman what she expected us to do, since there’s no way we can live on Eddie’s pay alone. She told me that technically I shouldn’t have even been receiving pay anyway, since I’m a student and therefore supposedly unable to work full time hours, and said I should have explained I was a student when I filed in last June after the Cingular lay-off. I told her that I wasn’t a student at that time, and asked her just what the hell we were supposed to do without an extra paycheck, and how she thought we’d be able to pay rent.
“Do you have any children?” she asked.
“No.”
“Then there’s nothing we can do to help you. You’ll have to return to work.”
Obviously unless you’ve spawned, you don’t matter because you should really be working to take care of those welfare queens who pop one out once a year to keep those benefits rolling in.
Suggestions and ideas we’ve had so far?
- pay rent and school this month, and then try to live on Eddie’s paycheck for the next 4 months
- move into Mom’s for 4 months
- borrow more money from family
Obviously, none of these is the most appetizing thing in my mind.
On a similar note, the reason that I never received last weeks benefit check? The post office lost them. They should, in theory, be received by Friday, 2 weeks late.
Tags: benefits, life, money, rant, rants, school, school, unemployment, welfare, work
December 28th, 2005 at 10:16 pm
Um, you could work too. You know a night job. Maybe at Home Depot or Cumberland Farms. A couple of bucks extra seem like they would help ypu stuation. You’re in a good position to both work and go to school. Sacrifice your free time for a few months and get it done. Lot’s of people work and go to college at the same time. My Dad worked in a mill while going to PC. I woked at Woolworths and on an ambulance when I was at URI. Jon our club
December 28th, 2005 at 10:30 pm
It’s not a matter of not wanting to give up free time. I don’t use my free time as it is. I’d be more than willing to work, if it were something that paid decent (ie: full time @ $11/hr, which is what we need in order to make ends meet) and was feasable with our 1-car household. As it stands, we go through 1/4 of a tank of gas each day to get Eddie and me to both work and school and then back home. Having spent over a year dealing with working opposite of Eddie’s schedule and only having 1 car, and seeing what that did to us (emotionally and physically), I flat-out refuse to do that again for the sake of our sanity. And don’t even suggest RIPTA - in order to get anywhere, it’s easily a 90min bus ride, and that’s providing that the job I had was during the hours that the bus runs.
The other problem is that if I do manage to find a way to stay in school, there’s no guarantee that my internship hours will work out with any existing potential job or that in the event that they don’t, that I’ll have a boss willing to be flexible enough to mess around with my schedule.
December 28th, 2005 at 11:01 pm
I guess what I meant to say, and didn’t at all, was that you should do whatever you can to stay in school and keep your head above water for the next four months. It’s not a long time. You must be able to do something, short of quitting school, to make it through that time. Rob Peter to pay Paul, be late on a few payments, work when you can.
December 29th, 2005 at 2:24 pm
what were you thinking when you signed up for this course? In order to get unemployement benifits, you have to be available to work. this situation you are in was totaly predictable. the differece between successful people and loosers is the abililty to see the consequences of thier actions and plan for the future.
December 29th, 2005 at 2:36 pm
I am available to work, and always have been. I’ve never claimed otherwise, and I’ve continued to update my resume and apply online to positions that I would fit in for this very reason - providing that both of us are able to continue sharing the car and aren’t working opposing shifts. Transportation is the sticking point, because as I said, we are rather limited in options when there’s one car and school and work are on other parts of the state.
As for planning for the future, I was told by both a former coworker and a family member that being in school would offer me an additional 6 months of benefits, which would have given me plenty of time to finish my classes in April and return to work after graduating and receiving my certification. In additiona to that, the last time I was unemployed (3 years ago) I had not found a job within the 6 month benefit period and was offered a 3 month extension, which is what I was expecting to be able to do this time in the event that I was not able to get the 6 months I was told I would be eligible for. While things would have been tight for the last month of so of school, we would still be getting an extra income each month.