Juswus

that is so rough! And it's getting so common now.
It's an amazing attitude you have, trying to look at the positives....sometimes that's all you can do. Sending you lots of good wishes

Bluegrass Lass

Thanks Juswus. It hasn't been all that easy trying to stay positive. Just trying to sell our house is proving to be almost impossible, and has me down on some days. The house is the biggest reason why we will likely have to go to the extreme of bankruptcy. So I know if we can just get past that hurdle, everything else will fall into place for us. That is the light at the end of the tunnel we try to focus on, and not the current difficulties and unknowns.

But our story is just one of millions, and we are fortunate in having family to help out. I do wonder how others are going to manage it though.

sir_eccles

That wouldn't surprise me, I'm easily confused.

MsElui

i dont work and we depend on my husbands income. If he were to lose his job we would likely have to return (against our will) to the UK as we have zero backup here.

Mummy in the foothills

Thats pretty much us too, but I have always, since we got here kept enough money tucked away to be able to ship us all back to UK.
We'd sink after the unemployment ran out, and Dh is the sole worker, I'm looking but nothing happening.

Michael

You should be able to collect up to 99 weeks of unemployment benefits (length depends on the unemployment rate in your state).

Although extended unemployment benefits expired at the end of June, the democrats are waiting until after recess for a new senator to be appointed to replace Robert Byrd so they will have enough votes to pass the bill (Snow and Collins supposedly support the extension along with 58 democrats to force cloture).

http://employeeissues.com/extended_benefits.htm

Michael

Normally there is 26 weeks of unemployment benefits when you get laid off while looking for another job. Unemployment premiums are paid by the employer to the state to cover the costs. When unemployment rates are low, that is considered long enough time to find another job.

Due to the very bad downturn in the economy, the federal government has be funding unemployment benefits beyond the 26 weeks (up to 99 weeks depending on the unemployment rate in the state).

The extended unemployment benefits were funded through the end of June and the democrats were trying to pass a bill ($35 billion) to fund the program longer. However, the bill was defeated when Robert Byrd (D-WV) died since they were one vote short to force cloture in the senate (60 out of 100 votes is needed). The democrats are waiting until after the holiday recess for a new senator to be appointed so they will have the 60 votes to force cloture and pass the bill.

fatbrit

Bit extreme? Most states you can mail them the keys and walk away with a big ding to your credit score but without owing the negative equity part. No idea with Kentucky, though. Best to save bankruptcy for when you really need it -- like medical bills -- as you can only throw that dice every 7 years.

Bob

Unfortunately, your buggered. I am, so we're in good company

Bob

In Maine, you've to be full time, W2 employee and worked 12 months at the same place to qualify for unemployment. Once you sign up, you wait a month, and have to apply for x number of jobs a week, 4 I think, signing up in person, though these days it might be online too.

Giantaxe

About half the states are non-recourse; unfortunately for sunflower, Kentucky isn't one of them. That doesn't mean a lender would come after them in a foreclosure, and I certainly wouldn't be declaring bankruptcy - absent other significant debts - unless they did.

Bob

Also had to have signed up before a certain period of time though, and have been laid off before a certain period of time to have gotten it.

MA senator voted against it, so cost the state $700M in funding, so lot of unhappy people in MA.

Thing is though, to get the extension, state has to have over 9% unemployment, and that is counting people who sign on. Those who have exhausted their allowance don't have to sign on weekly because they can't, so they aren't counted in the unemployment figures, so suddenly a lot of states are looking better than they really are.

chartreuse

Good point - the problem appears to be deficiency judgements. I had a bit google and found this CNN article that mentions a non-profit that helps folks negotiate away shortfalls.

Michael

Not the case for extended unemployment benefits unless you were laid off significantly before the first extension was passed (that left some of the people that were laid off in 2008 without extended benefits). Unfortunately that might have been your case since I believe you were laid off in early 2008. However, that was the case for the Cobra subsidy that was extended from 9 to 15 months.
The $35 billion package includes extending the unemployment benefits as well as increased subsidies for Medicaid. Normally the state pays 30%-50% of the cost of Medicaid benefits (depending on the medium family income in the state) but many more people have started getting Medicaid coverage since the recession started. This would have significantly increased the cost to states so the federal government is paying most of the additional cost of Medicaid due to the recession.
The federal government gets the unemployment rate through their monthly household employment survey (not from the unemployment office) for the purposes of determining how many extensions will be needed.

Bluegrass Lass

They can come after you for a deficiency in KY unfortunately. So likely we will do a deed-in-lieu (mail in the keys as you say) at a certain point in time if we don't have a buyer..and after we will likely have to do a bankruptcy to prevent a deficiency judgment from the lien holder. I'm not sure of all the details as yet since we haven't consulted a bankruptcy or real estate attorney yet, but it does seem pretty likely we will have to do a BK because of this as well as other debts.