~~~
Day’s Verse:
“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.”
Mark 11:23 (context)
~~~

The last month or so I seem to have gotten unemployment stuff sorted out. On Mondays I put in my claim; on Tuesdays I look for that week’s 3 jobs. Unfortunately, Ian received a letter a while ago saying that for me to retain my eligibility for Massachusetts unemployment benefits, I had to attend a seminar. In Massachusetts. That being not particularly feasible, it immediately became quite clear that I had to follow the instructions on the Massachusetts unemployment benefits page. They say:

When you move out-of-state, you must contact the nearest unemployment insurance office in your new state of residence to file a claim against Massachusetts.

Now, I may have some trouble with this, in that although I now live in Washington, I cannot actually prove residency. I am paying no bills and receiving no income, have a Massachusetts drivers license, and as far as the government is concerned, I remain a Massachusetts resident. Becoming a Washington state resident is actually fairly difficult; they have quite stringent requirements for proof of residency and will not take something like an apartment lease as evidence.

However, today I started investigating the Washington State unemployment benefits information. Their web site says:

Q.
How do I file a claim if I did not work in Washington state?

A.
As of January 11, 2009, you cannot file a new Washington state unemployment claim if you did not work in Washington during the base year. The only exception to this rule is if you were in the military or worked for the federal government.

To file an unemployment claim, you must file your claim with one of the state(s) where you worked in the last two years. Contact each state where you worked to find out your claim options for those states.

Well, OK, but I don’t actually need to file a new claim, per se. I actually need to file an interstate claim against Massachusetts — and the Washington site says nothing about interstate claims. I tried calling the interstate claims number for Massachusetts and got a busy signal. I tried calling the Washington unemployment number and was told all representatives were busy; call back at X times. Goodbye. I tried calling a Washington WorkSource location and was referred to the main unemployment number. Eventually I gave up on talking to a real person for today and have submitted an email to Washington state asking what I need to do to file an interstate claim.

The silly thing is that we’re talking about one additional month of unemployment coverage: I start working for Americorps on January 11. It may well take at least that long just to get an interstate claim set up and sorted out, by which time I will have to figure out how to cancel it.