let me tell you a story of how the Oregon Employment Department REALLY wants to fuck me over as thoroughly as possible. aka "holy fuck i am really truly irreparably fucked and might end up homeless because either a bureaucrat lied to me or fucked up on their end and won't take responsibility"
about 9 months before the pandemic hit, i left my job as a SpEd assistant at my old elementary school in order to pursue a degree in Comp Sci. 3 months before the pandemic hit, i began working at my then-university of OSU in the dining halls.
pandemic hits, dining halls shut down for 6 months. so i don't have work. my boss tells me to file for unemployment because the government is doing a pandemic unemployment program. so i do so.
the form wants all jobs i have worked in the past 18 months. while i was working at the school within the past 18 months, i had left voluntarily. so i call the OED and ask, hey, i left this job voluntarily, do i still fill it in? they say yes, even though i'm not filing for unemployment from that job, they want that full documentation.
so i fill in my old job on that page, but that's just a list of recent jobs in the last 18 months. the overall application is explicitly for unemployment from my current job at OSU.
december 2020 comes and i receive a letter - my unemployment was retroactively denied because i had left my previous job voluntarily. they want me to pay it all back. this is obviously ridiculous. i appeal. it goes to hearing. i try to explain that i did not file for unemployment from the school district that i had worked at previously. i was applying for unemployment from OSU. they did not care and ruled against me. i had to pay it all back.
this retroactive denial and appeals process started just 3 months after my emergency gallbladder surgery btw and medical bills were coming in at the same time.
so i appeal again. and this time it's repeated back and forth. i call them, they tell me to fill a particular form. i fill that form and mail it to them. they send a letter back saying "you filled out the wrong form. here's the correct form!" the form they gave me, the correct form? is the exact form i sent them. the exact form i sent them. this happens REPEATEDLY. for MONTHS.
FINALLY, FINALLY in October or November 2022 (LATE. 2022. I HAD BEEN GOING BACK AND FORTH WITH THEM FOR NEARLY TWO YEARS) they issue a revised ruling - i wasn't supposed to receive unemployment benefits but i was "not at fault". therefore they would not make me repay anything, but i could not receive further unemployment benefits until i paid it back.
i tried to appeal again because are you fucking kidding me, just LISTEN TO THE WORDS I AM SAYING, WHY ARE THEY IGNORING ME. I EXPLAINED SO MANY TIMES TO THEM WHAT HAD HAPPENED. THEY REFUSED, REFUSED TO LISTEN TO ME.
and once again, i send the appeal form they tell me to, they send back a "you sent the wrong form, here's the correct one" and the correct form is the one i just fucking sent. so i give up. at least i don't have to repay unemployment benefits immediately, only if i need to go on unemployment again. which i do not intend to but lmao that's optimistic, i'm autistic so.
anyways guess what i got in the mail today.
"hi so we're retroactively denying your benefits, your hearing is July 18th in the middle of your work day"
we went through this. we went through this for two years. and according to this letter, we're starting over from fucking scratch.
watch them make me pay it all back upfront this time. they clearly don't give a fuck about listening to me.