10 weeks unemployed and still no $ !! Reasonable Assurance, Shmeasonable Assurance.

I'm in Pennsylvania, unemployed since May 18th, filed right away, and still haven't seen a payment. My claim has a hold on it for "Reasonable Assurance" purposes, and it's taking forever.

Background: Anyone working for a school who is seeking unemployment compensation needs to sign a form saying that he/she doesn't have reasonable assurance of returning to that job in the future. This is presumably so that teachers who are off for the summer can't collect unemployment. I worked for a University in a research lab as a lab technician. I wasn't a teacher and there wasn't a teacher or student in the lab. The lab shut down without funding. No one works there anymore; I'm not going back; no one is going back. I definitely don't have reasonable assurance of future employment there.

I've completed all paperwork that I need to. That was verified over the phone with Unemployment. They're waiting on verification from my former employer. They say they've contacted them and are awaiting a decision. I called to complain on July 2, 10, and 17th. On the 10th he said it was "put on someone's desk" to handle it on the 2nd and that he would expect that I hear something very soon. On the 17th he told me that it was "assigned to an Examiner" on the 10th, supposedly for a decision. Now its 10 days later and still nothing.

When I call, whoever answers the phone doesn't ever know anything and doesn't know why it's taking so long. There's no physical office to go to. Has anyone else had this problem? Or have an idea who I can contact besides the same number that I've been calling?

Welcome to the forum, DannyMPF. I'm sorry to hear that.

I'm hearing of more and more people being made to wait weeks and weeks for claims to be approved. Someone just asked me about it today. They have been waiting 5 weeks and no one at mass DUA will give a straight answer so the claimant finally contacted the governers office. I guess they were somewhat helpful and are looking into it for him.

Is your former employer contesting the claim? That would hold things up.

Good luck!

welcome to the forum.....

Call your state representative, and start making some noise.....

there are enough examples of contacting your elected representative and him/her actually getting something done to try that approach

edit...PS who are they supposed to contact about your being called back if they to are gone?

Danny, per sick and tired and elvis, you absolutely are getting a run around. Legally, they have to respond and not three months later.

Governor Corbetts office, Dept. of Labor and Statistics. Email them, explain the situation and give the every specific you have. At worst you should have had a referee and hearing within 4 weeks. At best, a check. I will see if I still have the correct information for you and post it here. If necessary, the local news station and embarrass them. I don't know what part of PA you are from, but the Call for Action Hotline is a good bet as well. Now that being said, they can take up to 6 wks to get your money to you, but the decision should have been made within 4 wks maximum. Give me a minute and I will give you the numbers and if they are still good the email addresses.

This is the link to the Gov. Corbett's people and the counties they serve. Intersting no phone number available for either Gov. Corbett or Labor Secretary Julia K. Hearthway. Very telling.

The Phone numbers you need to check claims and file complaints are:

1-717-787-3547
1-717-783-3140

U.C. Service Center 1-888-313-7284
www.uc.pa.gov
www.dli.state.pa.us

Hope this information is of some help.

Please let us know how you make out.

Thanks for replying.

Sick n Tired, I doubt my employer is contesting the claim. Also, I was told that the hold on my claim was specifically due to Reasonable Assurance.

elvis, Are there really many examples of contacting a Representative getting results?
Unemployment said they contacted Human Resources. There are ~15-20 different contact numbers for Human Resources people. Much earlier I left a message with the "Front Desk" HR contact to see if they had in fact been contacted by them (eg, maybe an overlooked email sitting in an inbox is the cause of my suffering) but I got no response. Anyway, later, Unemployment said that HR did respond and I was just waiting for the what-should-be-clear-cut decision. When I call back I'm definitely going to press for details/reiteration on that, so I'm sure exactly where this thing is stalled. If nothing else, that will give me an excuse to call them and complain again since, because they never know anything and they said they'd call me when a decision is made, I don't officially have a good reason.

MaryKay,
Thank you for going to the trouble. I'll try that 2nd number. I see it's for claims information. Originally I called a claims rep for the wrong area (though I called the number they left on my voicemail) and they gave me a number specifically for Philadelphia, 215-856-6990. So that's the number I've been using. But I'll try the 717 number and maybe I'll reach different people than those that I've been calling, and maybe they'll be more helpful.

All three of you mention contacting a Representative or similar. I've never done that before for any reason. I'm cynically surprised to hear that that works in a reasonable amount of time , and it would never have occurred to me to do that. My House Representative, Rosita Youngblood, has a website with contact info. If you think that's worth a shot then I'll do that. And make more phone calls on Monday.

Thanks again for replying.

by DannyMPF Today at 6:32 pm
Thanks for replying.

Sick n Tired, I doubt my employer is contesting the claim. Also, I was told that the hold on my claim was specifically due to Reasonable Assurance.

elvis, Are there really many examples of contacting a Representative getting results?

Yes, there are quite a few examples, some might have posted on this forum over the years and some i have seen on other website/news, etc.

This sounds like just a bunch of red tape and buck-passing here, remember the staff at unemployment are overworked as well.

I live in Ohio, and have Dennis Kucinichs office about 15 miles from me on one side, Sherrod Brown's office is about 2 miles away,> So I would personally go down to one of MY reps office with a lot of paperwork.

However not knowing who your reps are i would contact your rep and maybe for good measure another one whos known to side with workers issues (read democrat).

Maybe do some google searches with the terms unemployment and (politicians name). they are supposed to advocate for you in such matters

Last summer my sister was laid off from her teaching position. She file midJune and didn't receive her first payment till Sept! Of course it was retro, but that didn't help during the time the DLT was trying to establish reasonable assurance. She called everyday until one kind rep found out what the hold up was - the school had not turned the necessary paperwork. The school had closed but the Dioces of Providence was responsible for returning the necessary forms. Between the understaffed DLT and the Diocese having so many claims, the paperwork for her and several coworkers just sat on someone's desk. Keep calling! You may get a rep who will try to clear this up for you!

And there may be a two fold problem to all of this...here in Massachusetts, you can get health insurance thru your unemployment, however, if they are holding you up, you have to go without. If it takes too long and you go without health insurance for a period of 4 months (don't remember how long), we will get fined 2000.00 come tax time.