Rant #2,367: Our House

The coronavirus and its impact on humanity hit home--my home--yesterday, when my son was put on "furlough" for two weeks from his weekday part-time job.

I put the word "furlough" in quotes, because they did not use that term. They called it something like a "temporary work stoppage" or something to that effect, but the fact of the matter is that starting today and until April 1, he is going to be at home, and no, he is not going to be paid for his ordered time off.

This lead me to scramble to try to find out if he is eligible for unemployment insurance. He still has a job, the job is waiting for him when things settle down, but he is out of work now, with no money coming in.

And remember, he already gets Social Security as he is developmentally disabled, so this confounds matters even more.

Yesterday afternoon, I first called Social Security, and when you call such agencies, it really is a miracle if you can speak to anyone. Somehow I got through to a representative, but I might as well have been speaking some ancient language than English to her.

"My son already gets Social Security, as he is disabled. What do I have to do now that he has been put on furlough, do I have to report this to you and what about unemployment?"

"You have to report each week about his employment to SSI [Supplemental Security Income, a precursor to Social Security that my son once received before getting Social Security], and you should report that he is now out of work."

"No, you don't understand. He gets Social Security, and does that effect what he gets from Social Security. I don't report on a weekly basis for Social Security."

"You should be reporting on a weekly basis for SSI, and if not, you are in violation."

"M'am, as I said, I don't report weekly for Social Security, haven't since he got it a few years ago, I am talking about Social Security."

"Are you shouting at me? I do not have to take your shouting."

I may have raised my voice to her, because she was not listening to what I had said, but I never shouted at her."

"M'am, if you feel like I am shouting, I fully apologize. But again, I am calling about Social Security, not SSI."

Finally, after a few minutes of going back and forth (I cut this down a bit for your reading}, she finally understood me.

"Oh, you are talking about Social Security. No, that will not effect his benefits right now."

She hung up, not telling me whether I had to report his two week furlough to Social Security.

Moving on from there, I called the New York State Department of Labor, which is akin to calling a dead person on the phone, because that is pretty much the response you get.

To cut this long story short, after not getting through to anyone, I finally called the media number, hoping they could transfer me over to someone who could help me.

I did get an actual person on the phone, but she said that she could not transfer me--but happily, she gave me a phone number that I had not called, I called that number, and the woman I got on the phone very robotically said that she believed that my son COULD apply for unemployment insurance ... again, THOUGHT he could apply.

The problem is now that everything is in such flux, changing seemingly by the hour, that nobody really knows what is going on, and cannot give any clear answers right at the moment.

Thus, based on the council of a few people, including my wife, I am going to table this for the time being, until things are more firmed up and people know what they are talking about.

So I am going to sit on this for the two week period. If he is told not to come to work for another two weeks after April 1, then nobody will have to tell me that it is time to file for unemployment, and I will call Social Security and let them know that my son is out of work, has been out and might be out for a long time.

(And by the way, I also called the local job office, the one that I have used during my own period of unemployment. I got no response from them, and honestly, I don't even know if they are available at this point in time.)

So right now, my son and I are out of work--I have no sense why I still have to "pound the beat," but the government says I have to, so I do--and happily, my wife is working--the banks will never close, although her "friendly bank" scaled back its hours and will no longer be open on Sunday for the time being.

Funny, my wife told me last week that a fellow employee called in sick, and the rumor was going around that she had the coronavirus. It kind of made my wife and fellow employees uncomfortable, since they are quite susceptible to getting any malady, since they both deal directly with the public and they handle the biggest carrier of germs around, which is money, both paper and coins.

Anyway, the woman came back to work, and she was fine, which made everyone feel better.

What did the woman have?

Well, she had some form of Corona virus ... not coronavirus ... yes, she had a little too much fun the other evening, and, well, she had the old fashioned "Corona virus" ...

A real bad hangover.

Case closed ... but as for my son, I still do not know what to do.