An Update
Yesterday (9/25/2012), I have
received two letters (each one page) in the mail from the Arizona Department of
Economic Security/Unemployment Insurance Administration (AZUIA), both dealing
with the work search requirements.
The first letter contains following
line in the letter head “New Work Search Eligibility Requirements
Effective August 5, 2012” (Emphasis added). This letter contains “Important
Information”, about two thirds of the letter explains in more details what “systematic
and sustained work search” means.
The second letter is captioned
“Clarification of Work Search Requirements”. It says “[t]here has been a lot of
confusion and misunderstanding on how to report work search requirements …”.
Oh, really!
Then, AZUIA provides a sample
table of what an “adequate” work search should look like with the caveat “(DO
NOT COPY)” (Emphasis original). Are the taxpayers or are the
bureaucrats morons?
I say what a moronic waste of
taxpayers’ money!
Brief Background
Following information is
presented on screen, when an unemployed person does her/his weekly unemployment
claims reporting online as he or she is asked to enter work search efforts into
an online work search log:
“Per A.R.S. [Arizona Revised
Statutes?] 23-771.A.4, all claimants must conduct a systematic and sustained
Work Search for each week of Unemployment Insurance benefits claimed.
A systematic and sustained
Work Search consists of contacts during at least four days of the week.
If you select ‘Other’ please
provide the Employer name, address and/or phone number, method of contact along
with any other information.”
An Outrage
To put it bluntly, I think
this online form to report your weekly work search efforts is outrageous!
Do these lawmakers not know
that job search is a demanding full time job that comes with many
disappointments along the way especially during the Great Recession? As if I
have to be told by lawmakers that I “must conduct a systematic and sustained
Work search”.
For a meager maximum of $240 unemployment
insurance benefit per week (about 25% of what I used to make a week), I have to
keep track where I applied etc. and spend up to about 10 minutes of my time to fulfill
this bureaucratic requirement using a cumbersome web form. Not to mention that
unemployment benefits are usually paid only for a maximum of 26 weeks. Hint to
lawmakers: I do not mind if you shorten this period.
This meager unemployment
benefit has to cover our rent, utilities, my health insurance premium, food, federal/state
income taxes (yes, this is taxable income.) etc. On top of that these lawmakers
want me to report my work search efforts, this is an insult.
Finally, it is none of the
business of government to require me to report which employers I contacted when
during my work search.
Waste Of Taxpayers’ Money
In August of 2012, there were
almost 250,000 reported unemployed persons in Arizona. If only 50% of those
have to fill out this weekly work search requirement and if we assume an
Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES) employee would spend 1 minute per
weekly report on verifying this information, this would amount to the DES
having to spend 260 work days per week just to check if it is done manually. Or
did the DES buy a possibly expensive software to do this verification? Do they
statistically sample? Anyway, if the DES tries to verify it would be a
substantial waste of taxpayers’ money!
If the DES does not verify,
then this is just another burden on the unemployed. So what the heck is this
good for?
1 comment:
Nice insight about Arizona insurance coverage. This is a must read for many. :)
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