I wanna start off by saying hello to everyone. I decided to sign up because every time I looked up unemployment in NJ this forum popped up.
I'm from the Bergen County area and live close to Paterson. So, if there is anyone else on here from my area and went through this, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COMMENT!!! I wanna know if I'm the only one this happened to.
Since I have been unemployed of 10/09, it has been a terrible experience. I am lucky to have been able to get the checks, because if I didn't I would be in a lot of trouble!! I worked somewhere for a little over 2 years at a doctor's office as a medical assistant. It was a very bad environment. A lot of things they did there was way below what people who live in this time period should be using in an office, like using a computer to schedule or for ANYTHING for that matter, not using the correct method of taking temperatures, (mercury thermometers and only 3 of them and using them for rectal, and oral)...the list goes on of all the things they did illegally to OSHA'S standards. Then to add to that, making my life a living hell!!! The 2 main docs were just really miserable human beings. One of them already was sued for putting his hands on one of the medical assistants years before I came along and what a nice front he put on!! I don't know which one was worse!! The creep that lingered over me and started verbal altercations with me at least once a week, or the other one who only took care of his kind of people and was a racist to everyone else. The women docs I worked with were so great to work with though, so it made it a little easier. I really would rather not say what area of the medical field I was in or where I was working, so please don't ask.
I kept trying to look elsewhere while I was working there, but was unsuccessful in finding anything. It got to the point where Ive had enough there. I didn't want to go to work a lot but I still woke up everyday and went to work. Well, thank god I kept notes of everything that they said or did to me. Because, I got let go in a very inappropriate manner. Of course it was some excuse for something that I didn't do. Some scheduling problem. Luckily, I kept that in my notes as well what happened that day too. If it were not for the notes, I probably would've gotten denied. So a word of advice for all TAKE NOTES especially if you're in a bad situation at work. I got my unemployment claim accepted because of all the notes I took. Of course they told lies about me that never happened to unemployment. I sent all of that to the unemployment office and that is how it got accepted.
So, I get this letter in the mail about a grant that we could receive. I thought thats great! I could go back to school and get more education in the medical field. Thats when the nightmare started!!
I first tried to go to the Bergen County office and they were "too busy to help me" and sent me to the Paterson office. So, I go there to find out information on this grant that I could get. I go through only some of the workshops, because I wasn't even aware there were other workshops also. Meet with a career counselor and was told to change my resume and nothing more. Went to some other workshop about getting into school and was told to apply. I apply for this grant and financial aid. DENIED. Then they say you can apply yourself but it has to get approved before. But if you make the mistake of saying you're attending school, if you apply without approval from unemployment,you could lose your benefits. I get nervous and I don't go through with it. I kept getting denied for financial aid also. I keep looking for a job and I'm not getting calls back. I get interviews, but no responses after that or the response was not enough training. I really don't have a lot of experience yet in this field. I really loved what I was doing too and want to continue.
I get my first notice that my benefits are exhausted in May of 2010. I was able to still collect. I continued to look for jobs with no success and try to get help from unemployment to get retrained as an MA or as something better. I even called the main office numerous times in Boston to go above them and see why I was not being helped. They would call me back, say they would contact someone in NJ and I would never hear from anyone. It felt like I was going in circles with them!
So a long time goes by and I finally get hired somewhere end of this summer until Sept. I was reporting to unemployment the hours that I was working there and would get a check in the amount of the difference. It was in a different field then what I was used to and everything was electronic. Where I was working before, I didn't use all the skills I had learned because the doctors really didn't let us do much. The company knew all of this but hired me anyway. They expected me to learn the computer system in only a few days and would just throw me into it. I really felt uncomfortable because of my lack of training and I felt really stupid. That made me realize where I went to school for this was not a good school at all, but the field I really belong in. I still try and look in the field I am interested in with no luck and still no help from unemployment. I emailed the person in charge of one stop a few days ago asking for help again, saying that I have been unemployed for a year now with no help from them and no success in finding a job in my field. There is a huge gap on my resume because of this and I am not getting hired anywhere. I explained that I went to some of the workshops, but never knew about all of them I had to go because I was not told to go to them to get approved for training. Today I called them to schedule an appointment and never got a call back.
The mail comes today and I got a letter as a notice of determination for extended unemployment stating that I'm not eligible because I did not work 20 base weeks of employment in the base year of the original claim which is 2010 on the notice. It also said Benefit year ending 10/24/2011. So what does that mean?? My claim is from 2009!! Somewhere in between 10/16 and 11/10 of last year the claim date was changed to 2010. When I called 11/2010 for a letter I received, this was not explained to me at all that it was a new claim and I thought the date change was for extended benefits. I never filed for a new claim and if the last place I worked filed a claim, I was never notified. I am really confused now and have to wait to call them tomorrow and probably deal with more nonsense.
By my calculations, my first extension was May 2010. Second extension was Nov 2010. By Feb 27 2011 I filed my continued claim and got the note that said benefits exhausted I would be eligible for extension.
So here's the question, does anyone know why the date was changed when it was from the same claim in 2009? Was this a mistake? Has this happened to anyone else and how do I get this fixed?
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