Unemployment pays too much

[fatrockstar]

I told the Public Health people how much I was getting from unemployment and it was too much to get any kind of reprieve on the cost. I gave what I could, which was about $50, but I still owe about $80. For a visit. There's more to the story here I don't want to go into, but the bottom line is that I have NO disposable income, NO bill-paying income, and all the money I have goes to the mortgage, period, but that doesn't make me eligible for any kind of state help.

With the kind of money I bring in now I should be able to pay full price. This bothers me a lot. If I sell this house I will put myself into about $40k of debt since it's not worth what I owe on the mortgage. Having a car is also a disadvantage -- it's an asset, and I get the feeling I'm expected to to sell it to make ends meet. Sell the house, sell the car, be in debt and homeless, THEN I can get some medical attention. I will wait to panic until I actually talk to the rep for that clinic.

My symptom has lingered for a couple of months. I didn't think about it the first month because I figured it would go away on its own. Now I'm concerned. Sometimes it's there and sometimes it is not, but when it is, it is difficult to ignore. I'm beginning to wonder if it is stress-related and not a symptom of something else at all.

What a pain in the ass all this is. 50 resumes submitted this week so far. Nobody's calling back -- yet.

Comments

[mcfnord.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you're going through hard times.

Can you get care, even if you cannot currently pay for it?

Bankrupcy has a provision for an automobile worth like three thousand i think. Retirement savings is also retained I think.

I scratch my head about being underwater on the mortgage. A bank said, "Oh, yeah, sure that house is worth that much, and always will be! Here, take the money." And now you're the party expected to be honorable about it? I went through a similar period but I wanted to keep my house, so I went deep into debt, which is not possible today with no access to new credit. Had I been underwater I might have walked.

I don't know your views on bankrupcy, and I myself haven't done it, but people did say to me basically that it could be a way back to a saner life. I was able to go into debt using credit cards ($50k or more), shuffling payments with military precision. I calculated a precise day that all timely payments would stop without warning, simply because they had to... it would be the exact end of my ability to maintain the scheme. I would have been a perfect credit customer who simply collapsed one day in a poof and never paid another cent, but things turned up before that day came.

[winifred.livejournal.com]

Currently I'm a little over $500 in the hole with medical, and that was the ER visit I took back in February from food poisoning. I got lucky with the taxes, so I'm okay for a little longer. Having a friend move in will also help me out. As far as getting care, though, yes I can get it. Public Health has always been gracious in letting me pay what I can and billing me for the rest.

As far as bankruptcy goes, it wouldn't help with the mortgage debt. My dad suggested it once because he'd been through it, but he also had a lot more credit card debt than I do -- it's definitely an option I'll take if I need it. My credit is otherwise stellar.

I'm hopeful that all these resumes I'm sending out will start to pay off soon. I'm trying very hard to stay in the career path I worked so hard to get into. If I can't, I'd rather flip burgers or pull coffee than go back to test.