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26-11-2021, 09:59 AM
By SARAH RANKIN
yesterday
......
Deaf since birth, Ray spent decades making complicated machinery at Bristol Compressors. During his shifts, he wore safety glasses, gloves, an apron and steel-toed boots that sometimes grew even heavier when soaked with leaking coolant, Ray said in an interview, with his niece interpreting.
......
Ray made about US$36,000 a year in his last year of work at the company, which closed despite receiving millions in taxpayer-funded incentives. Ray’s wages qualified him for $378 a week for 24 weeks, according to records in his case.
Ray, who is 57 with worn hands and a big white beard, began receiving those benefits without issue, started looking for a new job and meanwhile drove about 30 miles (48 kilometers) each way to an employment commission office in Bristol to comply with the state’s weekly work-search documentation requirements. He didn’t have a computer to do the paperwork online.
When his benefits ran out in May 2019, staff instructed him for reasons that are unclear to keep reporting his work-search details. Ray then missed one week due to a minor illness. After producing a doctor’s note, he received a notice saying he had been deemed unable to work — an applicant must be eligible to work to receive benefits — “due to medical reasons” and had received his payments in error. The state wanted the money back.
......
Ray appealed, but did so three weeks late, according to his lawsuit. Fluent only in American Sign Language, he had trouble reading the tiny print of the agency’s notice and understanding the bureaucratic language.
Ray’s case has since been winding its way through the employment commission appeals process. At each stage, the state has fought him on the basis of his late appeal, not the merits of the case.
......
Ray and his niece say he was unable to find another job, largely because of his deafness. He is now getting by on Social Security disability benefits that started well after his unemployment benefits ended.
He said he doesn’t have the money to repay the state and worries constantly about his case.
“I lost my job and then it’s like something that should have been in place to help me find something else just turned into a bigger mess,” he said.
https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-p...204931638a
yesterday
......
Deaf since birth, Ray spent decades making complicated machinery at Bristol Compressors. During his shifts, he wore safety glasses, gloves, an apron and steel-toed boots that sometimes grew even heavier when soaked with leaking coolant, Ray said in an interview, with his niece interpreting.
......
Ray made about US$36,000 a year in his last year of work at the company, which closed despite receiving millions in taxpayer-funded incentives. Ray’s wages qualified him for $378 a week for 24 weeks, according to records in his case.
Ray, who is 57 with worn hands and a big white beard, began receiving those benefits without issue, started looking for a new job and meanwhile drove about 30 miles (48 kilometers) each way to an employment commission office in Bristol to comply with the state’s weekly work-search documentation requirements. He didn’t have a computer to do the paperwork online.
When his benefits ran out in May 2019, staff instructed him for reasons that are unclear to keep reporting his work-search details. Ray then missed one week due to a minor illness. After producing a doctor’s note, he received a notice saying he had been deemed unable to work — an applicant must be eligible to work to receive benefits — “due to medical reasons” and had received his payments in error. The state wanted the money back.
......
Ray appealed, but did so three weeks late, according to his lawsuit. Fluent only in American Sign Language, he had trouble reading the tiny print of the agency’s notice and understanding the bureaucratic language.
Ray’s case has since been winding its way through the employment commission appeals process. At each stage, the state has fought him on the basis of his late appeal, not the merits of the case.
......
Ray and his niece say he was unable to find another job, largely because of his deafness. He is now getting by on Social Security disability benefits that started well after his unemployment benefits ended.
He said he doesn’t have the money to repay the state and worries constantly about his case.
“I lost my job and then it’s like something that should have been in place to help me find something else just turned into a bigger mess,” he said.
https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-p...204931638a
