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Zero Unemployment Assistance
Unemployment for this gig worker appears to be a myth for now
After two long two weeks of patiently waiting and biding my time, I was finally sent an e-mail confirming my eligibility for unemployment. As a rideshare driver, my earnings had been affected by the COVID-19 crisis for over a fortnight, but being a gig-worker I was not eligible to apply for benefits until the official passage of the federal stimulus bill which would reportedly allow contracted workers to qualify for unemployment.
Just applying had proven difficult due to the inability to get a hold of anyone in the unemployment office to assist me in completing an application that was designed to determine the amount of benefit owed a former employee on behalf of the company that had released them. The problem was that as a gig-worker no company was willing to claim me as an employee. I resolved to complete the application to the best of my ability and submit it online. The ten-day waiting period for a response had already turned into two weeks, so I was beginning to get impatient with no money coming in to address the timely arrival of monthly bills and invoices.
At the urging of my family I had hung up the keys to my car and took myself off the road, deciding that I would instead focus on educating my daughter whose school had been closed for the foreseeable future. I was going to…
