A number of people who are unemployed in Massachusetts and have lost their benefits due to situations with part-time employment, freelance income, and problems accepting or refusing employment have commented on my blog or sent me emails asking for help. I made some calls today and decided to post some information here in the hope that it can help...

Disclaimer: I have not gone through this process myself (and hope I will never have to) and I do not have personal knowledge of the facts involved in any individual case. I am not representing anyone as an attorney; just reporting what I understand the process to be. If you know better...please comment appropriately and help everyone...

The most important thing you can do if you believe your benefits are being wrongly denied is to continue to file your weekly claim by phone or online. If you don't file those weekly claims, even if the original denial is reversed, you will not be able to collect benefits retroactively.

When your benefits are canceled or denied, you should receive a letter informing you of this decision and your right to request a hearing. I get the impression that some people are told on the phone that they no longer qualify for benefits and then they just give up. Don't do that. If you receive this letter, it should include instructions on how to request a hearing which initiates the process described on the DUA web site.

Make your appeal timely--you have 10 days from the original letter to contest the determination.

If you do not receive a letter, you can contact the Adjustment Unit of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Division of Unimployment Assurance to state your claim and request a hearing. These hearings can take weeks or months to schedule, during which time you should keep filing your weekly claim.

Write a letter, identifying yourself, including your Social Security Number and any case/claim number information you have, and stating that you would like to request a review of your eligibility for benefits. State the facts about your claim--when did you file, what conversations did you have on the phone, what the current status of your benefits are as you understand them... It is best to state the procedural facts clearly and unemotionally to make it clear what you are asking for and what actions have been taken by DUA up to this point. Then, you can describe your circumstances--why you did what you were told disqualified you.

The purpose of this letter is to get a hearing, not to win your case outright. So don't tell them your life story and don't provide extraneous facts about your employment or other information that they don't know about that might raise additional issues!

For example, if you were told that because you quit a job, you can no longer claim benefits, you should say something like this: "The Tele-Claim representative told me that because I had stopped working as a dishwasher, I was no longer eligible to file for weekly benefits. I stopped filing my weekly claim but never received any formal notice of this decision." As you relate the facts, focus on "what" happened, not what you believe, think, feel, desire or wish. Then, request a review very explicity by saying, "I would like you to review my denial of benefits and give me an opportunity to appeal the decision." Then, you go into the consequences: "Based on what I was told, I stopped filing weekly claims. I was never fully employed and [rest of story.]

That's just my advice on writing a persuasive letter--obviously eveyone has their own situation, but the important thing is to lay out the procedural facts as accurately as possible and ask for an opportunity to provide additional information to help them make a more accurate determination of your status.

Send this letter to:

Adjustment Unit, DUA
Department of Workforce Development
Charles F. Hurley Building
19 Staniford Street, 2nd Floor
Boston, MA 02114 

Then wait. Unfortunately, there is a backlog and it could be 6-8 weeks before you hear anything. However, after 3 weeks, you can call the Hearings Department at 617-626-5200 to verify that the case has been opened/entered into the system, at which point you would receive a docket number that can be used to check status on the phone.

Don't give up. If I were in the situation described by some of the people who have contacted me, I would send a letter and start filing my weekly claim immediately AND argue that my failure to file previous weeks was not my fault because I was told to stop claiming. If the online form will not allow you to file a weekly claim...call the Tele-Claim center at 617-626-6338. If that person says "you're not eligible," then you should say "I am filing an appeal and want to certify that for this week, I was available for work, looked for work, and did not earn any money."

Pace yourself. You still need to find a job, but these benefits--if you deserve them--might be the difference between digging out of debt for years after you find work. So:

1. write that letter and mail it
2. do your weekly claim - keep the work search log going too so you have documentation of your efforts to find a job and you don't create another problem
3. wait 3 weeks, then call the Hearing Department at DUA to verify the hearing process is initiated. If it is not...hopefully they can help you on the phone to know what to do next.
4. go to the hearing and make your case

If the hearing results in an adverse judgment...you have the right to appeal the hearing as well.

As with any bureaucratic process, it would be nice if someone told you all this up front...or if someone acted as your advocate/guide/counsellor along the way. But that's not how it works, so live, learn, and share.

At the end of last year, as I started Dave Atkins Media!, I made a conscious decision to limit my "organizational activities" to avoid being sidetracked into non-productive activity. I spent about 2 hours making a website and elected to operate as a sole proprietorship with an excel spreadsheet as my general ledger. I used Freshbooks online invoicing to track my hours and bill my clients. Then, I landed the contract job at Mass.Gov and dove into that...

I'm going down to Needham Bank this morning to open a business account. Then I will turn in my d/b/a certificate at town hall, apply for an occupancy permit from the building department, apply for a sign permit to go on the front of my office space at 291 Washington Street, then get to work drawing up my articles of incorporation. What's different?

I will provide more details here, but basically, I'm more serious about this now. I have less time to talk about it and more time to do.

And yes...that website needs some work. I know where it needs to go now though...

The fact is, when you are laid off, you can lose your health insurance immediately, despite the so-called protections of COBRA. The only thing COBRA does is entitle certain qualififying persons (most people who are laid off) the opportunity to continue their health insurance under the same group plan they were eligible for when they were employed.

I've blogged here before about how to maintain health insurance while unemployed--essentially, you should 1) elect COBRA immediately because the Federal Stimulus subsidy means you will have at least 65% of the premium covered for 9 months, and 2) apply for the Massachusetts Medial Security Program and other resources which will subsidize an additional 80% of your out of pocket expenses through a reimbursement as long as you remain unemployed and enrolled in the MSP. These are generous benefits that all unemployed, eligible persons should take advantage of immediately.

Immediately is the key word. I thought I understood it all, but the learning process continues as I recently ran into difficulty confirming future doctor's appointments for my kids. I was told my insurance had been canceled immediately upon termination from my last job--before I even received the paperwork for COBRA. This is at the discretion of the employer.

Technically, under COBRA, you have the right to choose whether to elect continuation coverage for 60 days following termination. Then, you have 45 days to make the first payment. In every employer I've worked for in the past, this was explained to laid off employees as "don't worry about health insurance; you have 3 1/2 months before you'll have to pay anything." But it's not that simple. The employer may decided to wait 60 days--during which time they are actually continuing to pay for your health insurance and the insurance company does not even know you have been terminated. But they are not required to be that generous. If instead, they terminate your coverage immediately, then you will lose health insurance on the day you lose your job.

I was advised by my insurer, Tufts, to simply tell the doctor that I've applied for COBRA...hopefully that will be sufficient to enable us to continue receiving medical care until my former employer processes the paperwork of my COBRA election form and reinstates my health coverage. But it illustrates how important it is for you to NOT wait and to IMMEDIATELY make your COBRA election on the day you are laid off. The law only provides you the opportunity to purchase health insurance; it does not automatically provide continuity of coverage. As I've noted before, given the Federal Stimulus benefit, this is a "no-brainer" now, but that benefit will go away in a few months and then, once again, the unemployed will face the very real fear of the immediate loss of health care and difficult choice to being paying over $1000/month--while unemployed--to keep their families covered.

My job at Mass.Gov, as manager of the Massachusetts Recovery website, ended on September 30. I have hesitated to blog about it here for two reasons: 1) I do not want to "burn any bridges," by writing negatively about an experience that did not work out for me and 2) I need to honor the standard contractor confidentiality agreement I was asked to sign before I was told my contract would not be renewed.

The job was not a good fit. The people at Mass.Gov are doing great things and the Governor's Office in particular is embracing social media and interactive communications as part of an engagement strategy that will positively change the way our government works. They--the full time staff--are laying the groundwork for the future that will be adopted gradually as leaders responsible for results see the value in these tools.

But it was an awkward situation for me. First of all, while I worked for Mass.Gov, my real "customer" was the Massachusetts Recovery Office--an oversight agency that was in the process of being formed. My position was a contract job--and contract jobs have to be renewed every 90 days, so technically, I was not fired--the contract was just not renewed for me. I should have had no expectation of automatic continued employment. But I never thought of it as a just a contract job.

My leaving was not for performance reasons--in fact I was told repeatedly that I had accomplished a lot, my work was appreciated, but the Recovery Office wanted a more junior person for this particular role--to focus on just posting content to the web site. The requirements of the role changed significantly over the course of a few months--and I wanted my role to be more expansive than it was.

I'm sure for many, my presence was a mystery. How could someone with my experience be happy managing a web site? Some people felt I was "overqualified." But I saw the job as an opportunity that fit into a larger vision of how I thought I could do something good for others while developing relationships with influential people in state government. I canceled a final round of interviews with another company because I saw the potential of this role to allow me to make a significant contribution by using my talents in communication, technology, and social media to help economic recovery.

I think that ambitious attitude wasn't perceived as altruistically as I'd like. I don't know really. I felt as though there was something wrong about me. I didn't understand why people did not want to take advantage of what I thought I was offering.

I had similar frustrations years ago working for a legislative committee staff in Washington State. The role was non-partisan--a summer internship in 1992--but I was most definitely identifiable as a Democrat when I attended the 1992 Democratic National Convention as an alternate delegate for Paul Tsongas. I was careful to separate those things--as careful as I was to separate my own personal blogging from my work with mass.gov--but I think there is just a fundamental conflict that makes bureaucrats and staff uncomfortable. When people did not assign me projects...I sought them out. People were polite but non-responsive. I created projects and tried to find work to do. I remember creating study of all 50 states welfare reform initiatives. When the summer ended...no followup, no explanations, no invitation back.

What have I learned? I think I will never be comfortable sitting in the chairs behind the people at the conference table. I was not patient enough for that when I was in my 20s; why would I want that in my 40s? I need to work and make money--we all do. But for the things I want to do with my life, I need to just do them and not look for someone to hire me. I would rather serve as an official in my town than be the Governor's chief of staff. I would rather see a single bike lane painted in my town...or a crosswalk improved...and have a neighbor thank me for doing something that matters to them--than draft "the solution" to health care reform.

So now I focus on what next...and fill out my work search log and file my weekly claim.

to be continued...

After waiting on hold for 40 minutes, I obtained some answers to questions that I hope will clarify how unemployed people who have some temporary income can maintain uninterrupted health coverage under Massachusetts Medical Security Program (MSP).

This is an update of my prior post on how the Medical Security Program coordinates with the Federal Economic Stimulus and Recovery Act.

Read more »

My posts on unemployment in Massachusetts have drawn commentary here and attention from the media and government. A producer from WBUR called me last week to set up a panel discussion on Friday where I will join an economist and the Commonwealth's Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, Suzanne Bump to talk about the situation in Massachusetts and respond to listeners who call in with questions. I've also been talking with a staffer at that agency, where they have started a blog about jobs and unemployment.

Read more »

Don't let skills define you. This past Friday, at my Salty Legs Career Club, Stephen Balzac of 7StepsAhead presented what he has learned about how to "Interview for Success." Steve did a particularly effective job illustrating how to avoid being trapped in debates about skills.

It's hard to convince an interviewer you have the best skills, because if you allow skills to define you, there will always be someone better. I'm looking at a job posting right now that calls for a mysql DBA--and despite the fact that I have been working with databases since 1986--on an ancient system known as Ingress...despite the fact that I walked into one company and migrated their mysql database to Oracle...despite the fact that I set up Microsoft SQL Server replication, stored procedures, triggers, log shipping...and then transfered my knowledge over to mysql in my last job...I just KNOW there are tons of people out there who would make better mysql DBAs. I never took a test.

My skills do not define me. They are tools I use to solve bigger problems...problems like how to keep the business running without hiring more people. Or how to get a prototype from a developer's laptop onto the first two enterprise customer's websites before they run out of VC money. Or how to launch a startup within a big company without paying licensing fees for Microsoft SQL Server. Oh, yeah, needed to relearn Linux systems administration and virtualization too...no problem. Point is, I now realize my resume is TERRIBLE...listing all those skills I picked up when really, what I should be talking about are the incredible results I achieved--how I was an unstoppable force of technological scrappyness...but I digress.

Steven's talk is worth watching. You may disagree with some of his more "aggressive" recommendations insofar as questions to ask or the willingness to walk away from some situations. But the perspective is helpful to think about how you present yourself and how you can take control of an interview to present your strengths most effectively without becoming entangled in a debate over technical details or making the mistake of jumping in and solving problems before you know what the interviewer is really looking to solve.

I had the opportunity tonight to ask questions of our Governor and talked at length with the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development afterwords. This clip from NECN features my questions and the responses:

Starting in March 2009, unemployed Massachusetts residents who qualify for premium assistance under the Medical Security Program by having a family income below the 400% Federal Poverty Guidelines level, will be able to continue their health insurance coverage through COBRA with a 93% subsidy. If the full cost of family coverage was $1300 according to the separation/election notice you received, your cost will now be $91.

The Medical security program is reimbursing participants 80% of their costs. The Federal government, through the Economic Stimulus and Recovery Act, is subsidizing COBRA by 65% after March 1. This means the employee will write a check to their employer for 35% of $1300 = $455, then submit a claim to MSP and receive a rebate of $364, making their ultimate net cost $91.

The state policy is described here.

Now there are MANY problems with the administration of unemployment benefits in Massachusetts that I have blogged about here before. I'll mention those again below with links--this is an email I've shared with the Governor's office and my Representative. So while the policy above is GREAT, I am not saying it will be automatic.

Unemployed residents should file for benefits immediately and apply to the MSP program, then keep up with the application as best they can to ensure they get processed. Follow the links below for more information I've written about these topics, but the bottom line is:

Go, in person, to apply for benefits and send in the MSP form ASAP.

For those who want to do something about the frustration and difficulty associated with the process, here is what I propose to the state:

I've been blogging about my experiences with the DUA including a number of constructive suggestions. I tweeted about this and @MassGovernor said I should email the suggestions...

1. Change the phone tree to allow re-activation of claims from the menu
2. Determine MSP eligibility at time of filing initial claim.
3. Make health insurance policies that fail to meet minimum creditable standards ILLEGAL to sell in MA.
4. My original post about advice to the unemployed...7 tips

I have heard that DUA has hired more people to process claims on the phone and that eventually, the process will be moved online. But I have also heard from many people struggling with the frustration of not being able to get through to a person. No one was ready for this crisis but I believe efforts are underway to improve the situation.