Colorado Unemployment Benefits: The Three Hour Hold Line
Wouldn't More Efficient Programs, Save More Money and Minds?
If you don't find a job, right away, you have to start thinking of other options. Across the TV, on any given day, you hear them saying, "If you can't find a job, go back to school". Yea ok...that sounds good in theory, but what is the real story?
Unemployment requires that you are available for work to collect UI benefits. So should you try and go back to school? Should you get enrolled? No. If you do, you have to report that to the UI in your state.
To report going to school in Colorado, on the automated line or online, you will automatically hit a brick wall with that weeks benefits. It will place your benefits on hold until you get in touch with someone by phone. This can throw your finances into a tail spin.
You have to call and sit on hold until you are waited on. In Colorado, that means a two to three hour wait on hold to stupid music and the same announcements over and over. What are they doing? We had to go through this entire process last week.
I began to think about all of the waste in the Unemployment Commission in Colorado. I am sure it is similar all over the country. If you don't have enough people to answer the phones in a business, you try to hire more people or you try to simplify the process you have already.
I would say that 2-3 hours on hold is a strong indication, you need something done. When we finally connected with a live person, no documentation was required for proof of the school or anything. He told the guy on the other end he was in school 3 hours, for the summer and that was the end of it. The guy at UI then released his money.
I don't know yet what the purpose of being on hold for that long was for. You have to call this same line for changes to your tax status with unemployment and other things. Wouldn't it be more cost efficient to have this kind of thing programmed into the software. Have you ever sat on hold for 2-3 hours. Could be looking for a job.....
It makes me wonder just how much waste is actually going on in the Unemployment Offices across America.
Are all Government offices so wasteful? How about other things such as Health and Human Services. My daughters neighbor is a single parent. She has two children. Husband gone. She applied for help with Food Stamps and such. She said after she applied, she got over twenty letters in a 30 day period, stating various things.
They changed her amount, told her she didn't qualify because of husband's non residency, got denied and approved all in the same day and other totally outrageous communications, all costing at least 40 cents each to mail. They told her it was a glitch in the system, sending out automated letters. Who put them in the envelopes? No backup check?
We are killing programs that would be a huge benefit, but due to no one paying attention to stupid stuff, these programs are drowning in waste. Why not streamline these programs to operate properly? To really save money! Where is the benefit of overworked UI customer service people? Do they need to hire some of the unemployed people to work in a call center? Too much waste and unacknowledged disorganization.
All of the money that is being pumped into the system by our government, you would think, somebody would recognize the waste. We are spending $2 for every $4 in wasteful, useless, time consuming crap. If half of the money going to a program is spent on non essentials or practices that are all useless, where is the benefit? Is that why Social Security is going down the drain?
No wonder our states are broke. They have blown money like there is no tomorrow. Will they ever wake up and see what they are doing? Probably not....Too many heads and not enough brains......Sad that no one is willing to see it and fix it. You can pump money till the cows come home, if you are pumping it down the drain, what good is it?
You can't keep funneling money to a open drain. If states are going to complain, then get leaner and more productive. Don't keep sticking your hand out, AFTER you have wasted so much.
Published by Rose Richmond
Journalism, Freelance Writing. View profile
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22 Comments
Post a Commenthow is it possible that ilegal alliens can receive unemployment and its been two months for me to get mines! There is never anyone there to answer the phones. Hire more people! I need a job!
On going back to school, there's a hitch: If you already have a 4 year degree or higher, you don't qualify for extra benefits for school. Punishment for doing 'the right thing' early on. The only lesson I learned in college is that a degree is barely worth the paper it's written on. Was all a scam just to get you to pay for tuition, buy books, ect. ect.
I am attending college and a semester away from my BA. I just got laid off from my part time job a month ago after I paid for my tuition. I am collecting unemployment but it is not enough. I was denied food stamps because I was classified as a student. If I drop out of college I will get food stamps? The state may have found a loop hole to deny me welfare. I know the job search requirements are the same for both programs. State welfare officers should not be able to override the law by using their authority and discretion to disqualify my eligibility because I enrolled in school without their approval. I am an adult and I should not be subject to retaliation for my aspiration to complete school. They are not paying for my tuition. I got the message; they would rather pay a welfare recipient's tuition and books,find the person a good paying internship, and extend food stamp eligibility so the welfare can feel good about themselves and their poster child of compliance. The lesson I am su
I just got approved to go to an online university and collect unemployment. My situation is that I am being told I am over-qualified for positions I am applying for so I am looking to go another direction but need a degree to do so. I told that to the operator after an hour wait and will be enrolling in school Wed. Not as bad as I thought it would be.
If you are reading this and have commented before...YES you can go back to school. You have to be available to work if you find a job...but you can go back to school. Schedule for barely full time. You can still be working at night is the theory. Don't get discouraged. My husband was unemployed for a year. He went to school and got his certificate. Obama wants you to go to school if you are unemployed. There is extra money if you do. Ask the counselor at school or call them..Apply for everything.Colorado Stipend, Grants, loans everything. Report to Unemployment ONCE that you are going to school. You will have to call them afterwards, but you can go to school. Hang in there....Email me with questions. richmond46@msn.com
This UI benefit system is a bunch of smelly crap. I'm collecting, well waiting to collect. I have to wait until my severance and vacation time I was paid runs out....yet I still have to follow their ridiculous rules in the meantime and answer their asinine questions online every other week. And now I'm finding out I can't go back to school? Hello!!! I need a career change or a degree in my field to obtain work!!! Without going back to school, I'll be unemployed for a very long time. So now what?
Well put. Waiting on line for 2 1/2 hours is ridiculous. I have a cell phone only and that is expensive. Why can't I go to school AND collect unemployment? I got laid off yet I need to support my family. I'm a single mom. I never had a chance to complete my education but I can't just drop everything and live on campus. Its like a giant catch 22. I like this article. My thoughts exactly.
Elizabeth, It takes about 6 weeks to get your money the first time. Hang in there. Clue: Don't answer yes to any regular no question. If you go to school, answer no.If you volunteer, say no...Anything else that is not the normal answer, say no. Answer truthfully if they asked about earning money, but everything else is a bunch of crap.Very bad system Colorado has.
This very moment I am on hold. I've officially been holding for two hours and fifteen minutes. I got on-line to find information on whether or not I should keep holding or just give up.
They tell you to use the automated system to avoid being on hold, but when I put in my information, they said that I needed to speak with a representative.
I was laid off the first week of June (it is now the third week in August) and I have yet to receive an unemployment check.
I am unemployed here in Colorado and the mess with the Colorado Dept. of Labor & Unemployment is phenomenal. It is almost impossible to get through to the CDLE via telephone. I have found it is easiest to start calling early in the morning when their telephone lines come on. I hit redial 400-500 times to get through and then spend three hours on hold. Generally, the individual I speak with knows nothings about unemployment policies because they were recently hired and received virtually no training. The CDLE does not have e-mail contact and they do not respond to letters. If you go to the CDLE offices, you are told they will not talk with you unless you telephone! The CDLE never sends out information on when you are eligible for benefits or when new benefits become available. The CDLE computer system is from the 1970s and constantly fails. The entire system is a joke!