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This does relate to work, although indirectly only ...
For a while I had two jobs. Now I have one. I wasn't aware that because this represents a drastic decrease in my income, I could apply for unemployment benefits, even though I still have one job.
Anybody who's ever tried to negotiate the government labyrinth, regardless of which country you're in, knows how much fun that is.
First my current employer sent a Record of Employment that only went to February. I wrote to ask if they could send one that extended to mid-May, which is when I lost the office job. Nobody ever got back to me, but today when I went to [Downtown Government Office] to log into my government account, I discovered they had sent the newer one, as requested.
So all is well, right?
Nope. I'm still denied any unemployment.
Staffer: "You need 700 hours."
Me: "I've got over 800."
Staffer:
I was told I should take a seat and wait for a counsellor (or whatever their title is) to be free and they would look into my case and find out what happened (I haven't applied for unemployment in decades, so if they sum up ALL the Records of Employment they've received in the past two years, I've probably got closer to 1,500 hours. It would be even higher yet if Current Employer -- who recently went to a whole new computer system -- was willing to reach back and send them all the hours I've worked for them over the past three or four years.)
The wait time to see anybody was an hour.
I opted to return bright and early some morning to be there when they opened (at 8:30 a.m.)
With a jumbo takeout coffee.
For a while I had two jobs. Now I have one. I wasn't aware that because this represents a drastic decrease in my income, I could apply for unemployment benefits, even though I still have one job.
Anybody who's ever tried to negotiate the government labyrinth, regardless of which country you're in, knows how much fun that is.
First my current employer sent a Record of Employment that only went to February. I wrote to ask if they could send one that extended to mid-May, which is when I lost the office job. Nobody ever got back to me, but today when I went to [Downtown Government Office] to log into my government account, I discovered they had sent the newer one, as requested.
So all is well, right?
Nope. I'm still denied any unemployment.
Staffer: "You need 700 hours."
Me: "I've got over 800."
Staffer:
I was told I should take a seat and wait for a counsellor (or whatever their title is) to be free and they would look into my case and find out what happened (I haven't applied for unemployment in decades, so if they sum up ALL the Records of Employment they've received in the past two years, I've probably got closer to 1,500 hours. It would be even higher yet if Current Employer -- who recently went to a whole new computer system -- was willing to reach back and send them all the hours I've worked for them over the past three or four years.)
The wait time to see anybody was an hour.
I opted to return bright and early some morning to be there when they opened (at 8:30 a.m.)
With a jumbo takeout coffee.
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