The PPP start date was April 3 - they started firing enough people to get below the threshold the end of March in anticipation of needing to be below the 500 employee mark when it was enacted - too much flagging by the Legislators and fuckers like our CEO got all his firing and layoffs in before the effective date. Also we took *huge* paycuts before we were fired/laid off so when they/if they bring us back we'll be working for substantially less.
They turned our insurance off (not let it lapse nor get started on COBRA) *terminated* our health care, 401K contributions, Life, disability, etc. In the midst of a pandemic and with a wife needing surgery (that has been postponed indefinitely - she's crippled, in tremendous pain, and now terrified until our insurance is active again - and no one is hiring because everything is shut down. No money, no hope, no shit for me yet.
Luckily I have my house paid for and substantial savings (which has been devastated in the Markets) and can live like this for some months/years....the problem is at 64 I'll likely have to work until I die now as I have no time to make up the loss. My whole Life and 47 years of working like a dog likely up in smoke. But I wouldn't want to be a leach and suck the titty of free money. Rather die but that's not an option as I have an 86 YO mom, an 88 YO MIL, a crippled Wife, and at least one Emergency Communications Center that called me personally last week to keep their shit running because the company I used to work for is not responding to calls for Service....So like a dickhead I went over there and fixed their shit for free so other people in need of County EMS and Flood protection wouldn't be impacted.
The hardest part is listening to people call me names and suggest I'm a dead beat and ought to go shoot the place up because I'm being denied my Rights and suppressed by my Government. What a fucked up mess....never saw this coming for hard working model citizens like myself. Everybody thinks I'm a piece of shit.
VooDoo
You are in a better situation than most,but not great and fuck the assholes that say otherwise.
With some patience and good note taking you can break it off in your employer's ass.
It's big time frowned upon to screw with COBRA- that's Federal.
Hired,fired quit etc they have to offer it to you for 18 MONTHS-PERIOD .
To start the process you need to get in touch with someone from your states attorney general office division of insurance.
The KEY TO ALL THIS is record keeping, you talk to someone WRITE IT DOWN.
Phone number, date and time, and who you talked to.
Next you need to talk to the insurance company that you would of had through COBRA.
They will be able to fill in a lot of gaps,believe me they will be just as unhappy as you are about this since they lost millions of income to shady business practices.
Remember write everything down that you do.
The next thing to do is send you employer a notarized letter through certified mail asking about your COBRA benefits and when you can pay for them.
You probably won't hear anything, but now you backed their ass in a corner and have proof.
As for the 500 employees they needed to give a 30 day notice before they can just start shit canning people.
Get information on people you work with,network with them and stick together.
