Never Smug Again

I am now in the process of appealing the decision of the Employment Development Office to deny my employment claim for the last two weeks of July. I had the gall to make a mistake on my claim for. I exacerbated this egregious action by attempting to white-out the wrong answer and to then indicate the correct answer. Apparently this mistake generated a letter scheduling an interview with me to clarify this issue before my check for these two weeks was released. The plot thickens. After a grueling 4 hour job interview on Thursday, I left town for a previously scheduled vacation with the family. Now mind you I took my computer and continued to monitor job leads and to apply to promising leads. Unfortunately the letter came after we had left on Friday. The interview was scheduled for Thursday of the next week. Given that i did not return until Friday , I missed my interview. Upon learning of my mistake I quickly contacted the EDD office via phone an e-mail. I was basically told that I had to wait for a letter for any further information regarding this issue. In the interim, I received my claim form for the subsequent weeks along with a receipt stating that I would receive 0 dollars for the weeks in question. Oh, I was advised by one reluctant EDD worker to use a pencil on my future forms so a mistake could be more easily remedied. I finally received my letter re: this issue on yesterday and was promptly instructed that my claim had been denied and that I wold have to file an appeal to address this situation. I quickly completed the appeal and plan to mail it in the morning.

Now a few things came to mind as a result of this experience. It reminded me of the fact that keeping up with paperwork and requirements to secure aid from any governmental agency is often a job unto itself. Working in social services for years I can admit to feeling a certain sense of superiority when clients are applying for benefits or when their benefits are interrupted for some cause. I often tried to feel a little empathy for them but honestly I think I like a lot of people felt like the least 'they' could do was comply with whatever requirements to keep those 'free' checks from rolling in. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I really needed that money and I was upset when I realized that due to a minor mistake I was experiencing a disruption in the flow of my finances. Now fortunately, I have other resources and this check was not the determinant of whether or not I ate that night but I quickly recognized that oftentimes keeping up with the requirements to keep the checks flowing is like working a full-time job.

Of course some believe that it should be difficult to access these funds that our tax benefits generate. Maybe, but I can honestly tell you that I will never be so smug and judgemental again.