Benefits Claims Are Being Increasingly Challenged

It's hard enough to lose a job. But for a growing proportion of U.S. workers, the troubles really set in when they apply for unemployment benefits.

More than a quarter of people applying for such claims have their rights to the benefit challenged as employers increasingly act to block payouts to former workers.

The proportion of claims disputed by former employers and state agencies has reached record levels in recent years, according to the Labor Department numbers tallied by the Urban Institute.

Under state and federal laws, employees who are fired for misbehavior or quit voluntarily are ineligible for unemployment compensation. When jobless claims are blocked, employers save money because their unemployment insurance rates are based on the amount of the benefits their workers collect.

As unemployment rolls swell in the recession, many workers seem surprised to find their benefits challenged, their former bosses providing testimony against them. On one recent morning in what amounts to one of Maryland's unemployment courts, employees and employers squared off at conference tables to rehash reports of bad customer service, anger management and absenteeism.

Unemployment compensation programs are administered by the states and funded by payroll taxes that employers pay. In 2007, employers put up about $31.5 billion in such taxes, and those taxes typically rise during and after recessions, as states seek to replenish the funds.

When these current economic times get rough, laws forcing employers to do the right thing are increasingly being challenged. In a recent Washington Post article, the case of an electrician who was collecting unemployment benefits after losing his job at a Maryland hotel was being challenged by his ex-employer, the owners of the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center. A Washington Post reporter showed up in the courtroom resulting in the ex-employer withdrawing their appeal to challenge the unemployment benefits.

Why is it that someone who is fired for a reason out of their control has to hold the threat of public attention to force a company to uphold their end of the legal bargain?

This illustrates yet another of America’s problems, people trying to bypass laws to keep money for themselves without regard to how it affects an innocent victim.

We are all in this together, none of us turned this economy sour and treating people like tools to be thrown away instead of keeping in mind they are trying to survive too is only going to prolong the recovery.

Another result of this behavior is trust and faith in your fellow man is being further eroded away. This life does not have to be dog eat dog.

Several things an employee needs to do is keep your nose clean, do what is asked of you as long as it falls within the purview of your job description and keep a record of requests by your employer that fall outside of those guidelines. This record can become invaluable if you are ever fired and your claim to unemployment benefits is subsequently challenged. Trust me, employers will keep a written record of your work history and will not hesitate to use it against you in an attempt to save them from having to pay out legal benefits.

Court rulings have slowly enlarged the definition of employee misconduct, making it easier for employers to say they rightfully fired a worker which equates to a higher standard of behavior for employees. This of course automatically puts the employee at a distinct disadvantage, so just don’t give the employer reasons to fire you.

America, Are We All On the Same Team Here?

We give and give but the idiots in charge screw it all up. Sound familiar? Isn’t this the end result of pretty much everything we try to do in this country?

After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast in 2005 leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless, compassion for their situation and the desire to help filled news reports. Many throughout this country were willing to open their homes to victims. Monetary donations as well as food, clothing and household basics were freely given. It is one thing that makes this country great. But then government agencies get involved. And we quickly have a cluster of confusion surrounding ‘who is responsible for helping who’ and rules governing ‘who is to get what’.

We have government and private organizations set up to ensure aid is given where it is needed most. But when it comes time to putting their grand plans into play human traits like ego, jealousy, greed, apathy, and laziness all prevent the plans from seeing well-intentioned results. I don’t know if there are any inter-agency power struggles taking place but there certainly is a lack of communication and oversight.

FEMA was criticized for not acting quickly enough to get on the scene to assess damages and prepare plans for aid distribution. Why were they not ready? It is the central responsibility of that agency. It is why they exist. When they finally did act by providing mobile homes for the homeless, those homes set empty in storage facilities until they rotted. When they finally did act by providing household items, those items sat in warehouses undistributed. But when the cash came out everyone was trampling over each other with their hands out for their ‘fair share’ and a lot of them were not even victims.

FEMA has guidelines in place to ensure that aid assistance is directed to where it is most needed, namely to the actual victims. These guidelines must be in place because we all know that there are low-life thieves amongst us who will lie to get something for nothing, even if it means taking away from the actual victims. Because of these scum bags, aid cannot get to where it is intended in a timely manner. It is a sad fact that we will always have to deal with these situations which is basically a lack of compassion for the victims of Katrina.

Another sad fact is that government offices and volunteer groups ended up with items that were intended for the actual victims of Katrina. Prisons in Mississippi got coffee makers, pillowcases and dinnerware; Mississippi’s Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks took more coffee makers, cleaning supplies and other items; Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration received household items; and colleges, volunteer fire departments and other agencies received even more. Where is the compassion for Katrina’s victims?

Insurance companies, paid handsome premiums by homeowners who thought they were covered, weaseled out of their contracts hiding behind small print and big lawyers. No compassion for Katrina’s victims can be found here.

Contractors, that should have been happy to get jobs rebuilding the many homes destroyed in this natural disaster, created their own disaster by over charging and doing shoddy work so they could hurry on to the next job site for the promise of making even more money. Still no compassion for Katrina’s victims.

FEMA says they were not informed of any qualified aid organizations in Mississippi who were authorized to receive these items so they locked the items away. Yet FEMA knew these items were needed, so why didn’t they see to it that they were distributed? This shows a clear lack of compassion for Katrina’s victims.

State agencies knew of people who needed these items and did not pressure FEMA to get these items to needy victims. No compassion here for Katrina’s victims.

FEMA says nonprofit organizations that help the needy or homeless must meet federal guidelines and register with the Mississippi's Surplus Agency yet many of these organizations claim they did not know the agency existed. Lack of communication within the state of Mississippi? Perhaps, but if everyone involved in these organizations (Mississippi's surplus agency as well as all others) were truly compassionate about fulfilling their promise of aid victims of any natural disaster then somebody should have seen to it that they were all registered just in case they were needed. This shows an obvious lack of compassion for future victims.

So where did the reported compassion for Katrina’s victims come from? The unorganized masses of citizens without affiliations to aid organizations. Everyday taxpayers who want to do something. The very people who actually give the hard aid, such as cash, food items, household items, a warm bed and a house to stay in.

Since we have seen many times that our donations are more than likely to end up in thieves pockets or sit locked up in warehouses or rot unused in padlocked fields surrounded by chain link fences topped with barbed wire, what incentive do we have to give after the next disaster?

Federal and state government has failed us again, this time in a most egregious way.

Everyone involved in all of these failures, all of this ‘business as usual’, will cover their own butts as best they can and pass the blame elsewhere.

FEMA says it is conducting an internal probe into the storage of household supplies, but we already know what the outcome will be. We have seen it too many times in past ‘internal probes’ to muster enough surprised when they come up with a token person to be shuffled to another department or give the usual ‘policy changes are being made’ answer. And news agencies will all merrily report the governments results and go on to the next popular news item without any further investigation. And no one will apply pressure to ensure these failures don’t happen in the future.

I know it is pure fantasy to think we Americans are all supposed to be working together for our collective good. But when our tax dollars are being used to devise disaster plans then I bloody well want to see results when a disaster happens. I don’t want to hear excuses and see fingers pointed and victims still living in trailers on their property after three years struggling to afford to rebuild their homes because our aid organizations and insurance companies failed them. This government used to help take care of its citizens. This government now only goes half-heartedly through the motions of pretending to care.

Is it any wonder some people will no longer give assistance to victims because our aid distribution network is fraudulent and corrupt or simply inept?

Yes, we are supposed to be on the same team but ineptitude and mismanagement of our government agencies and private organizations is destroying what used to make this country great and it is causing our compassion to fade away.