Lazy Leaches

For the first time in my life I am faced with collecting unemployment benefits after being laid off.  I am very happy to be collecting the $1,400 or so a month from the State of Missouri.  I have been diligently searching for employment for months, documenting each contact, and without the unemployment income I would be in dire straits.  The unemployment is keeping me afloat and helping me to be able to live and provide something to my children.

Unfortunately through this experience I have learned of other individuals who abuse this lifeline.  One example is an individual who works during the summer but because of the nature of his business is out of work during the winter months.  Instead of finding winter work he sits on his behind collecting unemployment benefits until the next summer.  Another example is a person who has skills as a welder but has been collecting unemployment dollars for almost two years I think.  His benefits expire in September of this year but he has milked the max from the system with no inclination to find work.  The last example is another individual who is in his upper 50s or lower 60s who was laid off and has not actively searched for new employment for months and months now.  Instead, he has taken money from the State coffers for the maximum amount of time allotted and is happy doing nothing and living off the money our tax dollars provide.

I diligently document all the companies I have applied for employment to on a weekly basis.  I go to the unemployment office monthly to check in.  I am following the rules and trying hard to get a new job since being laid off, but it is so discouraging to see these individuals taking advantage of a system put in place for people like me.  Where are the checks and balances to weed out these lazy leaches?  According to the documentation I have read there are apparently random audits against unemployment beneficiaries.  Evidently, that is not enough.

If I know of just three cases of abuse, I can only imagine what is happening with this situation compounded on a national scale.  I have read about prosecutions against individuals committing fraudulent acts against the system by collecting unemployment while actually banking employment checks elsewhere, but what about these slugs who are living off the benefits willingly and doing nothing to find a job?  The Labor Department has only one decent publication addressing this issue and that was published in 1953!  The only check and balance in place today to identify and prosecute these leaches is a random audit that obviously is not random or frequent enough!

Just another example of a government system that is easily abused and the honest man’s  tax dollars are just being handed over to a society of slugs…and the government wants us to trust them to manage a health insurance program.  No thanks.