Main Street

On Valentine’s Day, We Urge Lawmakers to Have a Heart and Extend UI

by Catherine Balsamo – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

As today is Valentine’s Day, Working America joined Pennsylvania Wants to Work for an action encouraging our elected officials to have a heart and keep extended unemployment benefits in place Federal extended benefits will disappear after February 29th if our Congressmen and U.S. Senators don’t listen to their hearts and extend unemployment insurance (UI). Our politicians will likely be voting this week on whether or not millions of families will be able to feed their families, see their doctors, and pay their rent after the 29th.

The jobs crisis hasn’t ended since benefits were temporarily extended two months ago, and we cannot afford to pretend that it has. When there are four job seekers for every job available, families scraping by depend on their unemployment insurance to keep a roof over their heads and food on their tables. If anyone doubts the severity of this jobs crisis and the need for extended benefits, the experience of a Pittsburgh Working America member, described below, demonstrates such things all too clearly:

I am a laid-off engineer. I have been seeking work since 2009, and although I have a Ph.D. in computer science and 30 years of experience in information systems, I have not been able to secure full-time employment for the last two years. I have been consistently applying for jobs online, but I often do not even receive a response to my applications. Since 2009, I have had only one interview in response to my job searching. In effect, in the last few years, I have had to reduce my expenditures by reducing food, eliminating my phone line, foregoing TV, and relying on public transportation.

The jobs crisis is impacting many more workers than those who are receiving unemployment insurance. This crisis also directly impacts workers who have maxed out and no longer receive unemployment benefits, workers who simply gave up trying to find a job, workers who are working outside of their fields, workers who are working a fraction of the hours they would like to be, and workers who are receiving much lower compensation than they would if there weren’t such an huge pool of under- and un-employed workers to compete with.

It has also become clear to me how expensive it is to be unemployed. I have to carefully monitor the amount I’ve got left in my checking account so that I do not find myself stuck with a $35 dollar overdraft fee – or many of them. I have to pay legal fees on top of school taxes for not being able to pay school taxes on time. I’ve got to pay high interest rates on credit cards and insurances, because being unemployed has devastated my credit, leading companies to charge me exorbitant interest rates or “fees.” Unemployment’s impact on my credit has also compromised my employability, as companies perform credit checks for professional positions in most industries when considering an applicant.

Beyond seriously harming my credit, my savings have been exhausted, in part due to the cost of being unemployed. The other factor causing my savings to be nil is the cost of medical care. A family member, who needed medical treatment that insurance wouldn’t sufficiently cover, absolutely needed certain prescriptions as well as other treatments. The prescriptions cost a few hundred dollars a week. I cashed in my retirement savings to cover those medical expenses. As I was unemployed at the time and had minimal resources, I had to borrow money and transportation from friends. Between the overwhelming cost of treatments and prescriptions and my lack of income, once we spent all of our savings, we could no longer afford the care she needed.

The costs of unemployment extend into each area of my life. The jobs crisis is a broad one, impacting people of an array of professions, backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, experience levels, and geographic areas; it impacts deeply their families and those who depend on them; it impacts their friends and neighbors; it impacts all of society.

This member’s experience vividly shows how deeply we need our politicians to have a heart and keep extended benefits intact. The wellbeing of many families relies on it. No one deserves to face the situation described above. Call, write, or visit your federal senator’s and congressman’s offices to let them know: have a heart, and keep extended benefits in place.

Tags: Jobs, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, unemployment, unemployment benefits extension