Op-Ed by Peter Lucas — Kansas Unemployment FAIL
Op-Ed by Peter Lucas: Kansas Unemployment FAIL
Back in the 90’s, I worked for a company that was seasonal. We would work 9 months and be laid off for 3. I was laid off, so I enrolled in a couple of night classes. I was still available to work, but the unemployment office told me I could not draw unemployment if I was a student. So their brilliant plan was to give my lazy coworkers money (the ones who were watching Jerry Springer and drinking beer all day), but not give me, the hard working student, anything. Thanks Kansas.
I’ve been reading lots of news about the underfunded Kansas unemployment system, and how they are in dire need of more money, and how they’re raising rates (nearly double) on employers because so many people are currently unemployed.
Then I had some recent personal experience with the unemployment system and the problem suddenly came into focus.
Last October, my wife was terminated from her job as an office manager in a small medical practice. She was working for a friend, and the friendship went bad… which of course led to the termination. Kansas is a right-to-work state, so he had every right to terminate her for that reason, or for any reason.
However, he then became vindictive. This is the problem with working for a friend, especially one who is a megalomaniac. I am not vindictive, so I will not be telling you what business this was.
The point of all that background is to bring you to the Kansas unemployment system, which is as efficient as it is intelligent.
Initially, my wife filed her claim, but for some reason checks didn’t start coming. This was odd, because we had been led to believe that unemployment would actually send money to people who were unemployed.
About 3 weeks later, we received a letter that told us her ex-boss was disputing her unemployment, claiming he fired her for cause. This was a surprise to us, but he didn’t appear to have any evidence (since he conjured it up in his own head), so we weren’t worried.
What DID shock us was that the dispute hearing was EIGHT WEEKS LATER. So we’d already waited 3 weeks to get the letter, then we had to wait 8 more for the hearing, then if we won, probably wait another couple of weeks for the money to come in. I had to wonder how this affects families that are living paycheck to paycheck?
The date of the dispute phone call finally came, and my wife told the unemployment official the story. The ex-boss wasn’t able to provide any evidence of his claim, so we were approved for unemployment.
No less than 11 weeks after she lost her job, the first check finally arrived.
We thought that was the end of it, but it got much worse. Her employer filed an appeal. He apparently decided that forgery of documentation would be all he needed to overturn the ruling. It was laughably bad forgery, too. He signed her maiden name even though she was married at the time he dated forms. It didn’t even look like her handwriting. The attempt was feeble at best.
We knew that any reasonable judge would favor our side, so we once again waited 2 weeks for the hearing. They told us in the letter that we MUST NOT USE A CELL PHONE. So we gave our home phone number, and the day of the hearing I took off work so I could be moral support on the call.
At the allotted time, no phone call came. We called the court clerk, who attempted to contact the judge. No response. We waited by the phone for 3 hours, calling the clerk every 15 minutes trying to get a response.
After more than 3 hours, the judge finally responded to the clerk, telling her that “I tried to call and no one answered.”
Now, we were sitting by the phone, the two of us. We called in when they didn’t call us. I asked the clerk what we could do, and the judge told us, to paraphrase “It’s not my fault you didn’t pick up, so suck it.”
The phone was working, we gave them the correct number (verified by the clerk), and we were sitting there waiting, and proactively trying to be present for the hearing.
Without her on the call to refute his BS, we lost the appeal. Now we are being compelled to pay back the unemployment paid from October. And no more KS unemployment. And no Federal extension.
Basically we are completely screwed because they didn’t call us for the hearing. Our only recourse is to take him to court, which we all know is expensive, time consuming, and stressful.
So thanks, Kansas. You have never done anything for my family in time of need. FAIL. I’m going to have to move to a state that doesn’t have it’s head up it’s butt, like Missouri.
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February 4th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
I am on week 14. No appeal date. No letters. No phone call. I never get through on the phone. When I do they tell me to keep my eyes open for a letter. No letter.
February 5th, 2010 at 9:15 am
It’s probably for the best. Once they pay you for a few months, they can always decide to overturn the decision and make you pay it back.
April 29th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
The present unemployment system is out-dated. It was born in the 1930’s and needs to get up to 20 Century standards. We need to get some Congressman to look into this issue. And sponsor a bill that would make some positive changes to the system. Millions of Americans are all having a nightmare of problems with this present system. Most complain rightly that it is so confusing. They don’t even know what Tier they are on or what benefits they are illegal for. And these short few weeks of Tiers are ridiculous. The small checks for these extensions are soon use up. And then they are out of money till Congress decides to pass another extension. Meanwhile people are starving to death and winding up under a bridge while our Congressmen and Senators are fighting and bickering over whether they should pass another extension or not.
May 16th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
You should appeal it and request a different judge. Find out who is above the judge and write a letter to him or call him. Be very persistent because I beat a case that was much more complicated than this by writing letters and going all the way up the chain talking with the judges bosses boss and he handled it personally and next thing the appeal was withdrew. DON’T SETTLE FOR ONE JUDGE TELLING YOU NO. CALL HIS BOSS AND THEN HIS BOSS. You will find out that the judges are at the bottom of the totem pole…. good luck!
July 21st, 2010 at 4:01 pm
I was battling the KS unemployment system for 8 months to get my payment. Every instance was their fault. Every week for 8 months I filed my claim. Every week they messed it up. In that time, they have admitted to overlooking paperwork several times, being overloaded, missing things and just generally messing up. They have not admitted to lying about sending out important paperwork that was to be returned within 10 days. They have not admitted to sending out mail four months late and lying about it, in the meantime, cutting off my benefits for various reasons (in all of which I was compliant). This also happened to a coworker of mine on ks benefits otherwise I wouldn’t believe the shady tactics. Oh yeah, they didn’t manage to tell me after calling them every week or two FOR EIGHT FREAKING MONTHS that the reason my claim was blocked was because they sent me a form 6 months ago that wasn’t returned by me (this was the form they never sent until I found out about it and then they sent it, FOUR MONTHS TOO LATE). These sound like the ramblings of a crazy person - but I swear it’s all true. After battling them for 8 months, I received 1 paycheck. Now I am back to calling them every day or every other day, trying to get through to their unbelievably unreachable call center (just today I tried 6 times, no luck). They have actually made me cry on the phone - no easy task, I’ve had a rough life - that’s how bad this situation has gotten. In the case of every f-up, it’s been their fault. I have complied with everything they asked and even sent them extra information (they admitted to losing it). Why did I get this treatment? It all went south when I started filling in as a substitute worker - the best job I could get in this economy - I am penalized for trying to work! I would really like to sue. If you know where I can get help, please reply to this post with info.
August 1st, 2010 at 3:57 pm
I can attest to most of what has been said here. I have been thru the mill myself. Once I called in for 3 straight days trying to get someone on the phone. Each day I must have called about 20 times. I even started calling at 7.30am to try and beat anybody else, (not my normal behaviour but one born of desperation). All to no avail. If you can’t get anyone on the phone then you can’t put your record straight, so, you will continue to be denied benefits. Once I actually got someone on the phone I did manage to get benefits restored but the next week they messed up again.
Soon it will be time for me to apply for extended benefits and the whole process will start over with delays and being messed around while they deny me benefits week after week, as a result of their mistakes.
I don’t know what the solution is, and I’m powerless to do anything anyway. But I know one thing. This country has a long history of people who don’t like banks and what they and Wall Street have done to the livelihood of the poorer workers in the USA. Do the names John Dillinger and Jesse James ring a bell? I’m sure that bank robberies will be more common in the near future, now that we have millions of desperate people losing their benefits. I, myself, will never become a bank robber, but then I don’t have hungry children to feed. What man could stand by and watch his children starve without becoming desperate?