Adele Ferguson - Nov. 26, 2009

THEY SAY the economic downturn we are suffering is a recession until it affects you and yours personally and then it becomes a depression.

Well, the depression is on the premises. Mine. that is.

The depression arrived when a member of my family lost her job. She worked in a small office that deals with escrow assistance and when the housing boom went bust, the owners first cut the hours of employees to avoid laying anyone off. She was down to two days a week when the ceiling fell in and the owners laid off everybody but the manager. So what do you do now? I asked the newly jobless. Apply for unemployment? Look for a job? How does that work? What chance have you got with a national unemployment rate at a 26-year high of 10.2 percent (USA Today) and many of the people looking right along with you are in your line of work?

She didn’t know yet. What she does know is that she has a house payment each month and a high health insurance premium. She has some savings and some stock but savings eventually dissipate when you take out and don’t put in.

She’d heard, she said, that if she started collecting unemployment, then found a job which didn’t last, she couldn’t go back on the unemployment rolls. I didn’t know, I said. Not only have I never been on unemployment, neither has any of my nine brothers and sisters. We’ve all been fairly successful in where we landed in the job market.

ANYWAY, I CALLED Employment Security in Olympia. There, I got communications director Sheryl Hutchison and asked what the procedure is when a newly jobless person walks into the unemployment office and asks for help.

For one thing, she said, “there are no unemployment offices. There haven’t been for 10 years. Anyone can apply for unemployment benefits and we will determine if you are eligible. You can contact us online at ESD.Wa.gov or call 1-800-318-6022, but I’d advise people to call later in the week, like Wednesday or Thursday because it’s easier to get in without waiting.”

You will be asked for your employment history for the last two years, your gross earnings, Social Security number and a few other odds and ends. Your payment is, of course, based on your income. The minimum being paid now is $225 a week and the maximum is $630. Regular benefits are paid up to 26 weeks.

However, ta da, because this is such a high unemployment state, there are extended benefit programs available here that could take you up to 99 weeks. Yeah, that’s what I said, or rather Sheryl Hutchison said, 99 weeks. Further, another blow on the trumpet, the feds will pay 60 percent of the cost of your health benefits under COBRA.

AS FOR MY JOBLESS relative’s fear that she could permanently lose her unemployment benefits if she starts collecting and then takes a job that turns out to be temporary. “That’s not true,” said Ms. Hutchison.

You can be in and out for 12 months on an open claim..

“There are now 300,000 unemployed persons in the state right now,” Ms. Hutchison said, “of which 200,000 a week are getting benefits. The others aren’t for various reasons.”

There. I hope this enlightens and comforts people whose jobs are in jeopardy. I don’t know a single person who’d rather be on unemployment benefits than work but it’s nice to know it’s there when you need it.

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, Wa.. 98349.)