The Joys of Unemployment and Freelancing

I worked!

It was awesome.  It wasn’t much but it was good to at least have a gig.  I did a little camera work for a few days a couple weeks ago. Really great opportunity to meet some new people in the business and hopefully this will all lead to more work.  So springtime is coming and thing are looking up.

As a good little boy on the dole, while I was clarifying my benefits for this week I told them that I had worked the week prior.

For those of you not familiar with the unemployment benefits you need to clarify your benefits each week.  If you work one week and make more money than you would on unemployment, they suspend your benefits for a week. 

This is totally reasonable to me.  Some people may say that they wouldn’t try to find work as long as the free money is coming in, but I make a lot more when I’m working than I do when I’m not working.  So if I can find a gig for a week I set myself up in a good spot and then the weeks I don’t work I get my unemployment to make sure I keep myself afloat. 

That was 2 weeks ago, and then this week happened. 

I got a very nice paycheck from that freelance gig and I promptly put it into my bank account.  This put me in a really good spot monetarily.  So I waited the week of my suspended benefits and I was sitting pretty to start collecting again this week. 

When your benefits are suspended, you need to fill out a questionnaire for the DOL about the previous work experience.  It asks questions about whom you worked for and why you aren’t working there anymore.  Very simple and I think relatively easy.

Problem was, my friends at the Dol use snail mail.  (I KNOW!) So I didn’t get the questionnaire last week like I thought I would.  I got it this week, on Wednesday.  Which means I didn’t get it out until Thursday, Again through snail mail. (I KNOW! I even had to buy a stamp!)  The issue with the questionnaire and the snail mail is that you don’t receive benefits until they receive the questionnaire.

Everyone follow so far?

Recapping quickly, my unemployment has been suspended for two weeks because they haven’t received my questionnaire yet.  This is a little annoying, but it is ok because I have some extra cash because of my freelancing. 

Until that check bounced…

It was in my account, and then it just evaporated. 

So now I have no income for the past two weeks.  I have been staring at my bank account on my computer screen for the past 3 days just wondering when the rent check is going to clear and hoping that I have all the other bills that automatically debit accounted for.  If another bill clears the same day my rent clears it will sink me.  It will incur fees that will start to snowball into a debt that I will have trouble paying off once I start getting paid again. 

I will eventually get all of this money, or at least I should.  That will be a good chunk of change, but now I have to wait and try to make sure I don’t drown while it comes.  I’m trying not to be terrified, but I quite literally have $100 to play with until I get the checks that I am owed, and there is no guarantee that this money will show up in time. 

These are the joys of unemployment and freelancing