Unemployment Extension Needed More Than Ever in Storm Ravaged Sullivan, Illinois

The senate passed the unemployment extension legislation Tuesday, with the needed and long awaited 60th vote after Senator Carte Goodman (WV), was sworn into office.⁽¹⁾ The bill moves on to the House of Representatives, then President Obama for approval.

Unfortunately, for my family, a serve storm struck my hometown of Sullivan, IL yesterday, the high winds obliterating our ability to hold out just a little longer for an unemployment extension.⁽²⁾ More importantly, I was unable to receive the phone call telling me when and where to go for my new job training. Power is still out on my side of town and is expected to be until at least Wednesday. I can't even turn the phone on to retrieve the phone number for the agency that contacted me.

The refrigerator did not retain its coolness and my food is spoiled. Food purchased with our last bit of savings, which is empty due to the six weeks I have been awaiting an unemployment check. My vegetable garden was destroyed by high winds.

This training, through the Soyland Access to Independent Living, is to gain employment taking care of disabled individuals. It has been the only call back I have received after 99 weeks of unemployment and countless applications. Illinois has an unemployment rate of 10.4 percent, causing job hunting, especially in my rural area, to be extremely competitive.⁽³⁾ Knowing this, I have applied to whatever positions I have found open, from office to fast food.

My last job was as an office worker and kitchen supervisor in a retirement community, paying $10.95 an hour, plus weekly bonuses. My current bi-weekly unemployment check is $413, having been reduced as I progressed through the tiers. I will become a 99er tomorrow. That makes missing my call for job training even more frightening, although I have hope that they will understand the circumstances and I will still be able to be trained. After I receive my back pay from unemployment, my benefits will be exhausted. The senate passed legislation does not include a fifth tier of unemployment.

I am lucky that my fiance is employed, albeit underemployed. He is a construction worker for a small outfit that has been able to receive spotty work doing weatherization. Even if the jobs aren't consistent, he would only work one week a month without the weatherization programs funded by the 2009 Recovery Act.

We were able to plan ahead, to an extent, and reduce our bills to under $1,000 a month. This includes food, medicine, utilities, house payment, insurance, cable, internet and phone. Finding a bank-owned home with a $100 monthly payment was what kept our budget positive. It is also the one bill we have mutually agreed to put above all the rest. We may go without power and much food waiting for the unemployment extension to be finalized, but we will be able to keep our home. That is luck that some jobless and underemployed Americans have run out of.

Sources:

¹USA Today: Senate advances unemployment bill, by John Fritze
²WAND: Storm Damage in Sullivan
³Bureau of labor Statistics: Unemployment Rates for States