This headline today from the Detroit News got my attention – More Michigan jobless can’t get benefits.

I thought “What’s the deal?”

And then I remembered the crazy bureaucracy that my husband faced in summer 2002. He was a Michigan resident working at an Ohio radio station where several people lost their jobs during a company sale. He had interviewed well for another job, but learned during his last week at work that he didn’t get that offer.

We started looking into unemployment benefits. But in our initial research, the Ohio job people were telling him to apply in Michigan; while the Michigan job people were telling him to apply in Ohio. Now why was this such a difficult situation to deal with? This should have been nothing new to the state job agencies – there are many workers who cross the state line in both directions!

Luckily, we didn’t have to spend too much time arguing with bureaucrats. My husband got a job within a couple of days from a temporary agency and life went on for about two years before he did face unemployment – this time applying under the much easier scenario of a Michigan resident with a Michigan work history.

Well, as the Detroit News has learned, there are a lot of scenarios where Michigan residents aren’t getting jobless benefits.

A snippet:

“It’s when I need help the most is when I can’t get it,” said Marvin Mayes, who worked at a car wash that went out of business. With an annual salary of $8,000, Mayes made about half of what is required to qualify for benefits. The 56-year-old Detroiter said he’s given up his rental home, moved in with his daughter and often eats a bowl of soup and a single sandwich a day to survive. …

The 63 percent of Michigan’s jobless residents not getting benefits mirrors the national average. The trend began more than two decades ago, U.S. Labor Department data shows. And advocates and unemployment officials say it is accelerating, particularly in states such as Michigan, which is going through a fundamental economic change amid a vast restructuring of the auto industry.

The trend shows that the New Deal-era system of unemployment benefits, called unemployment insurance, is out of date with a 21st-century work force that includes part-time employees, people who must change jobs often and those paid at the bottom of the scale, labor advocates say.

As some of those quoted in that story hinted at, it takes a lot of time and research to find resources when you have to find ways of supporting yourself other than a paycheck or to supplement a shrinking paycheck.

From my discussions with those working in the local non-profit and human resources field, families who seek out traditional financial assistance need to follow up on a lot of referrals from one agency to another as they try to find out what services the family qualifies for, keep track of all the deadlines, apply for them, and hope the funding for that program hasn’t run out in the meantime.

Finding financial help is a much more complicated situation for middle class families who make too much money or have too many resources to qualify for traditional programs like cash assistance, free school lunches and food stamps. Instead, those of you who fit that demographic will be assembling a patchwork quilt that relies more on family circumstances and your own initiative to cover expenses:

• You can learn how to maximize your savings at the grocery and drugstores with coupons, rebates, medical savings accounts and discounted generic drug promotions.
• You could get dinner at the God Works! soup kitchen one night a week, which does not require proof of income; or find out which food pantries don’t require proof of income.
• You can get groceries from Angel Food Ministries, which also does not require proof of income.
• You can look for free fun things to do in Monroe County via the MonroeTalks calendar hosted by The Monroe Evening News.
• You can get some of your family’s clothing at the second-hand stores or Mom2Mom sales or the occasional giveaways hosted by area churches, and make your “good stuff” last longer.
• A military family can get a grant to help pay for a child’s after-school activities.
• A college student might get a scholarship or two or three.
• You can re-arrange work schedules to limit your day care expenses, such as having both parents work different shifts.

All of the above suggestions are topics I’ve blogged about or linked to at Monroe on a Budget. Start scrolling through the sidebars and blogroll for links and tips of interest to you.