Unemployment help (original) (raw)

June 26 2002, 17:43

Hey everyone,
I have a question for those of you who know anything about unemployment. How the heck do you get the state of Pennsylvania to make a ruling on your case?!?
I could share the long story about my termination, but let me assure you it was due to no fault of my own; my former employer even promised that they would not oppose my request for unemployment. It's been a month since I filed, and I've been waiting three weeks since I sent my paperwork in. Of course I've been looking for work in the meantime, but my major problem is that in three months I'm going back to school. No "real" (read: well-paying) full-time job will hire someone who is only going to be there for three months. The remaining job market will pay MUCH less that what I was earning, and expected to earn up until September. Even if I find some kind of work, I'll really need unemployment compensation to supplement whatever I am making, to survive and not end up starving and living on the street.
Every time I call the office where they make the determinations, I get a different answer. The responses I get range from "You should have already had an answer," to "I knew of one person who got 12 checks at once from us by the time the determination was made," (and checks are only issued EVERY OTHER WEEK!) No one up there seems to know exactly WHERE my information is. Their responses to that question range from: "It may be on someone's desk waiting for its turn in line," to "We could still be waiting for information from the employer." I can't speak with anyone else, and no one will give me a concrete answer.
It just seems crazy to me that no one up there has any accountability. How do they expect people to survive after a non-fault termination if they can't even rule on whether they get compensation or not?
Does anyone have any suggestions? Sorry if it seems like I'm whining, it's just very frustrating to not have any income, and none in sight.