Free benefits

I just went there and looked at the benefits offered by state. In Alabama, the only 'benefit' I'm eligible for is unemployment insurance-which I have to take advantage of a couple times a year due to the nature of my job. Believe me-it's no 'benefit.'  Nobody can survive on unemployment here.

Pretty much all the 'benefits' pertain to families with minor children. My household doesn't qualify for any of them.

Well, looks like the only benefit that I can get is Social Security which I am now receiving.

Looks like that makes me a full time "gimmethat" and you, Puppy, a part time "gimmethat"

You now road puppy we disagree mostly but that's ok seems you want to work more are there no other options in the Shoals area?  I know around here school bus drivers are typically seasonal workers.  I know in this area "Memphis" truck drivers with experience are in demand.   Unemployment is not mean to be a way of life "not saying you are trying to do that"

Hmm.... I guess so. I guess that part of my gross income that goes toward my unemployment is irrelevant.... *sigh*

I'm just a part-time freebie-moochin' gimmethat....

You know what I try to be nice and give you the benefit of the doubt etc.  You keep doing the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome and complain about you situation.   The part of your your pay that goes towards unemployment does not cover the entire cost of your unemployment payment.   I was simply saying you have a skill set that you might be able to use for better results.

RP I asked you once before and either you missed the question or didn't think it was any of my business. Either way, I'll ask again and you can tell me if it's none of my business. Why don't you have insurance? I only know three people who drive school buses. One is in his fifties and does home repair work and other odd jobs, one is an older woman, the last an older man. All three say the bus driving is for the insurance only, they have other incomes. The school bus openings online all mention insurance as a benefit, so how is it the school system you drive for doesn't have it?

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I'm not complaining about anything. It is what it is and I am what I am. I'm not expecting any results other than what happens.

  I understand that *I* don't fully pay for my unemployment compensation.

What might YOUR problem with that be, Baka?

I'm just a part-time freebie-moochin' gimmethat....

So who is paying for the rest of your yearly cycle of unemployment?  I give you a hint it starts with Tax and ends with payer.

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Best, Florence uses a contractor for it's school transportation. I don't work directly for the school system.  The company I work for does offer insurance. The problem is nobody working there can afford it as it costs over $350 per week. On a good week-I make a little over $200. One retired guy who works at my terminal signed up for it and it took his entire paycheck every week and that STILL wasn't enough to cover it.

  He had to actually quit his employment there and the get rehired so he could opt out of it and the insurance company still hit him up for a couple grand from his previous term of employment.

For the cost, the insurance doesn't really cover much.

Personally, I think ANY medical insurance is better than what I have now, which is nothing.

Most of my company's terminals in other parts of the country work with the union we have and contribute a share as well as the union contributing a share to keep the employees' shares of the payments down to an affordable level.  Not so here. It all has to come out of the employee's pocket. We have not gotten to the point where we can negotiate insurance with our company yet. Our contract is up for renegotiation this year so we'll have to see what we can come up with this time.

The last contract we negotiated-we didn't have much time to put it together and at that time we were more concerned with ending the management corruption (management was stealing from the company and from drivers(I didn't get paid a cent til 6 weeks after I started there) and establishing safe working conditions (buses running bald tires/speedometers not working/engines running with plain water coolant and overheating/fire hazards from electrical problems/reusing used parts for repairs and playing 'musical tires' every time the state inspector came to inspect the equipment.)

We got the old management replaced and the equipment is finally safe and fairly reliable now.

We also got a 40 cent raise out of 'em. (woohoo!)

We are the lowest paid terminal of our company in the country (Mississippi might have one that makes less per hour). We'd like to remedy that. Some kind of affordable medical insurance would be nice.

We just haven't been able to get there yet. Not for lack of trying.

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*I* pay taxes, bonehead.

Yes and you get a refund.  You still do not cover the cost of your unemployment via taxes and withholding the rest is funded by others!

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Aaaaaaannnnnnnd YOU DON'T get a tax refund????

*facepalm*

Another sparring website that doesn't need to be continued.

I was talking to a night stocker at WalMart who had a seriously ill son.  He was working to have availability of their health insurance.  Couldn't obtain outside insurance with son's pre-existing illness.  When he finished there mornings, he went to work as a commercial landscaper.  I have no idea when he had time to sleep.  That's a man that's taking care of business--without Medicaid or running out on the hospital bills.  I admire him for being a stand up guy.

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Hiflyer, I have been mistaken about many things in my life, so I checked this one out. According to every source I found, only the employer pays into the unemployment fund. Sometime in the late 1970s, there was a recession with many unemployed. The state then took matching funds from the employee, but this was done away with in a few years after the economy improved.

As I understand it, the state pays only the first 26 weeks. If another great recession hit, it's possible the state could again look to creative ways to finance unemployment.

Perhaps you were thinking of SSI or something similar?

Are you being sarcastic about them being free?  I really wasn't sure..  Nothing is free and isn't most/all of that "free" stuff paid for by taxpayers?  The government only generates income by taxing people who work, like myself.

Are you being sarcastic about them being free?  I really wasn't sure..  Nothing is free and isn't most/all of that "free" stuff paid for by taxpayers?  The government only generates income by taxing people who work, like myself.

It's free to the undeserved takers. The givers, taxpayers, get nothing out of the deal. If you get a free sample of someone's product there's the chance they'll get your business in return. We taxpayers don't have a chance of getting anything in return, except demands for more.