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Tuesday, Apr. 16, 2002 - 2:00 p.m. - Relief
Well, as far as we can tell, it looks like my “stressful situation” has been resolved. Not only has it been resolved, but it looks like it has resolved in the best possible way. We’re still waiting for paperwork to make sure it is all taken care of, but it looks good. Now that it is over I feel a bit more comfortable mentioning what that situation was. Basically, I was given severance pay back in July when I was laid off from my job, but at the “lay off meeting” that I had with the HR person and the branch president of our company I was told that because it was severance and a “separation package” I would be eligible for unemployment benefits starting the following Monday. So I made sure I understood correctly and then applied for benefits immediately upon my being laid off. What I was told was correct. Severance does not affect your ability to start collecting benefits. However, in my case my severance wasn’t paid out in one big chunk, but rather over time like a continuous paycheck. This is where the problem came in. So on Wednesday, April 3rd, I received a “nice” (sarcastic tone there) letter from the Employment Security Department’s Fraud Investigation Unit stating that I am being investigated for fraud for overpayment for the weeks of X through X (the weeks I was receiving my severance at the same time as unemployment) and that I would be required to either simply pay the money back (we are talking about a rather significant sum of money here) or meet with the fraud investigation board in person (I could bring a lawyer if I wanted – yeah right, like I have money for a lawyer when I’m unemployed) to defend myself. The most nerve—wracking part of all this was wondering where we would get the money to pay back the amount they were asking for as well as if I was seen as acting “fraudulent” that I would lose all my unemployment benefits for the next two years! I also only had 15 days to respond to this charge. Of course, I immediately got on the phone with the HR representative who went over and signed the paperwork I received when I was going through the lay offs and explained my situation. He was stunned. He said he’d been doing layoffs for many companies for years and he’d never heard of this happening. Fortunately he agreed to go and attend the interview if it came to that, but he hoped that it wouldn’t. I then called the number I was given to set up an interview and talked with a person there, who wanted to know a bit more about the situation and the money. I got the feeling that I would most likely not be charged with fraud in this situation, but I was still worried about paying the money back. She needed to talk with my company to get more of the details and unfortunately the HR representative and the government representative played phone tag with each other all last week. I, of course, was on pins and needles waiting to find out what was happening and wanting to get this resolved as soon as possible. To make matters worse, the company I used to work for, recently lost a major business contract which is causing them to pretty much lay off and shut down the entire branch I used to work for, so the HR representative was in the middle of all that last week too (it came out in the press last Tuesday). Fortunately, yesterday the HR Representative and the government representative finally were able to connect and have sorted everything out. I am not being charged with fraud nor will I have to repay the money I received in unemployment benefits. Whew!!! As you can imagine my relief is quite big and the stress lifted from my shoulders. I actually felt like today was Saturday for some reason and I think it is because this burden I’ve been carrying around for the last week and a half has been liberated. Ironically though, I received another “audit” from the Unemployment Security division in the mail yesterday! Sheesh, does it never end?? No big deal though, they just want to make sure I’m doing the required number of job searches each week, which I have been doing. But still, I must be on someone’s black list or something! In other news, that Pampering Party I went to on Sunday was kind of a crock. It wasn’t very “pampering” if you ask me. Basically there was a representative there with the products and we could try them, but we had to do our own pedicures and such. Although I’m not huge yet, I must say, reaching my feet over my belly is already getting a bit hard for me, so I can’t say I felt very “pampered” by the time I got home. We did get some free products, of which I got some “body smoothing scrub” and some goop for under my eyes to help with the “puffies” but it wasn’t stuff I’m really into. I’d much rather receive 25 dollars in free scrapbooking stuff than makeup and lotions. I had just bought myself some nice moisturizing lotion at Bath & Body Works a few days before so I didn’t need any more lotion. Oh well, it was fun to get together with the neighborhood ladies. Well, I should get going on my “projects” today. Today’s project is dealing with paperwork. I have a pile of paper I need to go through and file away nice and neatly in my file cabinet. It’s a yucky job, but I’ll feel so good when it is done, I’m sure. Oh and I’ve “graduated” to doing my heparin injections into my thigh now rather than my stomach because my stomach is getting so hard that there isn’t as much “fat” to inject the heparin into. Luckily (or really unluckily) there is no lack of fat in my thighs! The other option is in the upper arm, but I don’t want big bruises where they can be so plainly seen. Yuck! Wow, excitement around the Heidi Household!
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