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To add insult to injury how on earth is a person who made way over six figures....and is laid off supposed to live on $351 a week in unemployment benefits? $351 is the maximum weekly amount paid in South Carolina and they need to raise it to a livable amount so that people at least have a shot at not losing the roof over their head while their looking for a new job.
Here is the real tragedy....spend years paying mortgages and property taxes...then one day someone decides at the company that profit margins are not fat enough and now you are laid off with a foreclosure hanging over your head. And guess what? Nobody cares until they go through the same thing!
Then you go to the unemployment office for one of their so called eligibility interviews and are told that to keep getting unemployment benefits you must be willing to accept a minimum wage job if it's offered. Something must be done to change the rules....people who are laid off should not be punished....losing a job and living on unemployment benefits is punishment enough.
This is why when people get on this forum and swear that living on $9 & $10 is possible in the south because the cost of living is cheap...it is BS!
I was living in Greenville, was receiving unemployment benefits and the weekly amount was equivalent to $10 an hour. Trying to pay mortgage, car payments, electric bills, gas bills, insurance, telephone, food, gas for car and take care of a son who was in high school at the time was impossible.
Unemployment is not meant to cover those things, only necessities while you try to find employment. I may be totally wrong, but aren't you the person who somehow managed to negotiate your NY salary in Greenville for the same job? I know there was a poster on city-data who said that, but it may not have been you. Whoever it is, I still find that ridiculous, and it's one of my favorite jokes to share with people. +1 on your location entry though!
I personally know 2 people who took last summer off to be with their kids, because they were collecting unemployment.
I also remember being at the mall right before benefits were extended, and checking out at a store. A guy runs up to the counter, and asks the salesperson who was checking me out, "Are you guys hiring, because my unemployment runs out next week?" Awesome.
I know corporate HR people who have people turn down good jobs all the time for various reasons (multiple times per week), but my favorite stories are because they have another interview next week. These people are being offered a job RIGHT NOW, but they're going to wait and see what happens with the next interview?!?!?!? Guess what, they call back the following week, and the job has been filled.
Trying to pay mortgage, car payments, electric bills, gas bills, insurance, telephone, food, gas for car and take care of a son who was in high school at the time was impossible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ckeegan
Unemployment is not meant to cover those things, only necessities while you try to find employment.
NewYorkBorn didn't list anything that was discretionary: cable, Internet, magazine/newspaper subscriptions, cell phones, gym memberships, hair/nail care, tanning sessions, waxing, auto detailing, eating out, concerts, class trips, tickets to the school dance, etc.
What alternate universe do you live in where "mortgage, car payments, electric bills, gas bills, insurance, telephone, food, gas for car and take care of a son" are NOT necessities? I really want to know, because I want to get my Walter Bishop on and cross universes, damn the tear in its fabric or how much amber we have to use to seal the breach!
So is it better to sit around doing little or nothing while accepting a costly bail-out, merely hoping the "right job" will show up eventually?
Trust me, finding full-time work is a full-time job in and of itself and is not "doing little or nothing." Your ultra-conservative drivel is nice ideological fodder but that doesn't work in the real world. Take it from someone who has been there. Thankfully that was some time ago and I was able to land a job with a similar salary within a reasonable amount of time.
ckeegan lets see if I got this right you think if someone is on unemployment (that they only can get by losing their job through no fault of their own)they should have to work for the state for free for a minimum of ten hours a week and take any job that comes along.
Somehow I don't agree. Any bread winner's first responsibility is to provide for their family as best they can. Bringing home less money just to have a job does not do that. I'm not saying don't take any job just not one that provides less then what they bringing home know.
I would like to see if your attitude changed if you were laid off.
This is why when people get on this forum and swear that living on $9 & $10 is possible in the south because the cost of living is cheap...it is BS!
I was living in Greenville, was receiving unemployment benefits and the weekly amount was equivalent to $10 an hour. Trying to pay mortgage, car payments, electric bills, gas bills, insurance, telephone, food, gas for car and take care of a son who was in high school at the time was impossible.
If it were not for my family mailing checks each month from NYC to help with the bills while I was unemployed I would have lost everything. But in the end I was one of those who refused to accept work at $10 an hour and have a degree in business.....so I returned home to NYC where I can earn the kind of money that my resume deserves....would advise anyone in the same situation to do the same thing and move where you can get a decent job.
I hope by "This forum" you mean all of city-data.com, because if you think this is somehow unique to Greenville or SC you're delusional. If anything there are tons of people forced to accept jobs paying $10 in places with a much higher cost of living than here.
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