Arizona Unemployment Insurance: Work Search Requirements Are An Insult

I have previously written another blog post on Unemployment Insurance in Arizona.

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?

Arizona Unemployment Insurance Administration – Treating You Like A Criminal

Meanwhile, I wrote a follow up blog post on unemployment insurance in Arizona.

For A Few Dollars

For laughable $240 per week or even less you are being treated in a demeaning way and like a criminal. From this little money I would also need to pay for my health insurance (but ObamCare is not the solution). It's almost as if you have to beg for this money.

Still Operating In the 19^th Century

After you register online as an unemployed for the first time, the AZUIA (Arizona Unemployment Insurance Administration) sends you within a few days three separate letters in the snail mail with forms, booklets and tables.

Of those tons of questions you are being asked or the items you need to certify, too many of them kind of imply that you are only out there to cheat and defraud the AZUIA. This is what I call demeaning.

If you indicate during your online registration that you expect to receive some severance pay, AZBIA will send you a questionnaire with at least 10 questions that you have to answer within 5 working days of the date of notice.

Most of these questions, I thought I had already answered during my online registration. Why can I not answer those questions online? In the 21^st century there is no excuse not to offer an online form for those questions. It would also save some costs and tax payers' money!

Certification Of Understanding

This is a very benign name for a document that needs your signature and date certifying that “I am aware that the law provides criminal penalties for false statements made in connection with receiving unemployment insurance benefits.”

This is the caption of one of the forms that were mailed to me soon after I registered online as unemployed. This form has to be returned within 7 calendar days or “failure to return this certificate could result in denial of Unemployment Benefits.”

This form consists of a mumble jumble of a number of disparate things (Emphasis added):

·         I have to certify that I “read and understand the contents” of a 30 page “pamphlet” titled “A Guide To Unemployment Insurance” (small page size, 8.5 by 3.5 inches)
[Oh sure, no problem! Great bedtime reading. Will take me only a few hours, if taken seriously.]

·         I have to certify that I had been “given the opportunity to ask questions about my claim and have received an explanation of anything I did not understand.”
[Can I really certify this? I doubt it.]

·         I have to certify again what income tax deduction option that I had already selected during my previous online registration.
[Is this necessary? I am not a dummy.]

·         “I authorize my banking institution to release to the Arizona Department of Economic Security any account information pertaining to my receipt and eligibility for unemployment insurance benefits.”
[What do I authorize herewith? What exactly is the scope of account information to be released? They don’t even ask which bank institution? Do they already know my bank institutions? I would say this is so serious that this requires a separate form plus some explanations.]

You would think that perhaps this 30 pages pamphlet “A Guide To Unemployment Insurance” would tell you something about this Certification of Understanding form or in particular about the authorization to release any banking account information, but the pamphlet on page 26 is very generic and the respective paragraph is only 5 lines long.

Arizona Department Of Economic Security

Whoever came up with this oxymoron of a department name? There is no economic security and never was in a free market economy. Only central planners, statists and the like can think of something like this.

The Arizona Statutes under Title 23 (“Labor”) contains chapter 4 titled “Employment Security”. Is this what this department is named after?

On their website, this department does not provide you with any e-mail addresses, the aforementioned letters I received after I registered as an unemployed also did not include any e-mail addresses, only phone numbers and P.O. Boxes. This is not acceptable anymore in the 21^st century!

Or is this just a secretive department totally afraid of potential legal liabilities or possible retributions by dissatisfied unemployed people? Or do public sector union work rules prevent e-mail contact between tax payers and public sector employees?

This department is also hiding telephone numbers to their various divisions, office of the director etc. You really have to search or drill on their website for their phone numbers. Just try their Site Map, it’s awful.

Finally, I found this page (just look at the rather generic link address itself) with phone numbers of the director’s office. Well, I called (602) 542-4791, the number given on their website for the “DES Director” to inquire about the e-mail address of the Director. Well, it is the Operator, who picks up the phone not the Director’s office. I called twice and both times the Operator picked up, a nice, elder lady. Must be a very busy director’s office or they do not like to receive calls from unemployed tax payers like me.