I was surfing around and found a terrific quote with regard to Unemployment:
“A lot of people don’t want to apply for unemployment because they see it as a government welfare program. It’s absolutely not a welfare program. What unemployment is, is an insurance pool,” Scholnick said.
Lauren Scholnick is a Partner at Strindberg & Scholnick.
I didn’t want to apply for unemployment for a few reasons:
- I don’t like dealing with government paperwork. I used to work for the gov’t and man, they have a lot of useless forms to fill out!
- I was sure I’d have a job before I was eligible for unemployment benefits. I had a six week severance, and unemployment wouldn’t start until the end of those six weeks.
- I was embarrassed to get on welfare. I wasn’t one of “those” people who needed welfare.
- It wasn’t that much money, anyway.
When I finally realized it was time to file, I had a hard time (see #3 above!). But one thing I told myself was that I paid into the system, and this is what it was for.
Indeed, as Lauren says, it’s not a welfare program, it’s an insurance pool. Not applying for unemployment insurance is like having health insurance but not using it when you go to the hospital.
You wouldn’t do that, would you? You paid for it – now use it!
Same thing with unemployment benefits… don’t be ashamed – they are there for a reason.
In response to my four points above:
- Oh well, I had to get over it and go through the paperwork process.
- Yeah right… I didn’t have much of anything going in my job search by the time my severance period ran out.
- I had to get over it. Hungry mouths to feed helped.
- It wasn’t much money but it was something, and quite helpful to keep afloat!
Good luck – don’t delay!
