Remember that I mentioned the Unemployment Insurance representative told us, during the 90-minute chivaree in which all us furloughed Great Desert University employees were to sign up for the Shared Work program, that we should be careful of the various “fees and penalties” Chase Bank was likely to charge against the required debit card we would be given? Well, the guy wasn’t kidding.
CNN runs an article today detailing exactly how many gouges the banks are digging out of Americans’ unemployment benefits: 40 cents for the privilege of asking how much remains in your balance; 50 cents if they deny your card; 35 cents to access your account by phone. According to this report, ripoffs range from around 40 cents to as much as $3 per transaction.
These, we may note, are being coughed up to the very institutions whose executives are using the taxpayers’ TARP money to frolic in fancy resorts and fly around the country in private jets.
Oh, yeah, speaking of gouges: you get to pay income taxes on your unemployment insurance, too.
Talk about a Nation of Sheep. I can’t believe we’re not at the barricades!
The William E. Morris Institute, a nonprofit that represents low-income people in court pro bono, is spearheading a class-action suit against Arizona’s Department of Economic Services, which administers Unemployment Insurance disbursements here (after a fashion). The complaint is that DES isn’t processing claims fast enough—or, in some cases, at all. That’s not surprising, given the agency’s antediluvian operations.
It’s good to hear that someone, somewhere, is trying to put these clowns’ feet to the fire. What’s amazing, to my mind, is that we don’t have riots in the streets. But I guess as long as we can afford our cable bill, we can keep sucking on our pacifier. What, us worry?
This.is.an.outrage! We must be a nation of sheep…
Yeah, Smart Spending ran a piece on in early March.
So I guess you can’t opt out of the debit-card program? It’s a shame that banks are still so damn greedy.
That said, don’t forget that, thanks to Obama, you don’t have to pay taxes on the first $2400 of unemployment income.
Each state works its own deal with a bank. Some arrangements are less rapacious for the “customer” than others. In Arizona, you can opt out, but only after the first payment. The debit card is the so-called “default mode.” You can ask to have succeeding payments direct-deposited to your checking account, so that succeeding payments are all yours…if they ever get around to paying your benefits, which so far they have not.
We’re now six weeks into GDU’s furlough program. So, had I actually been laid off on January 25 when this started, I would still be waiting for unemployment insurance.
Yes, I’m thankful that I don’t have to pay taxes on benefits that I’m not getting. Too bad Obama took the only sane governor this state has had in decades. We now have no one to complain to, since the legislature is dominated by doctrinaire right-wingers who don’t think the government should be paying anything to its citizens. Some of them don’t think government should exist at all, and sought office in an effort to “kill the beast.”
Hmmm. Now tell me. Are you SURE about that government health care thing?
@ punditius: LOL! Certainly not if it’s administered by the State of Arizona!!!!