Government waste at its finest.....

[Vipergrün]

I received an EDD debit card in the mail yesterday, but I have been gainfully employed since being laid off 3 years ago. My first thought was an attempt of fraud.

Since I could not get in touch with anyone at the California unemployment offices, I decided to activate the card and check the balance..

.79 balance from 3 years ago. That's right, their time, my time, postage, and other related expenses for .79. Unbelievable waste.

So, California, and Governor Jerry Brown, I hereby decline the .79 and would like to contribute it to the State of California general fund.....

[pwd72s]

If it weren't so sad, it would be funny.

[Tobra]

Back when Medi-Cal paid for my services, I got hundreds of checks for less than a nickel, that cost 10 times that to mail to me.

[id10t]

Nah, never spend it and some bean counter/bursar somewhere will end up taking dried frog pills because his books will never balance out properly.

[John Rogers]

Yes that sort of thing happens as it did to me. I had an email from our home lender that there was some money not used by me after we did a HARP refi 3 years ago. It was a real deal for $320 and some change so I went on their website and did the appropriate stuff and got it! The lady I talked to while verifying it wasn't a Nigerian scam or some thing told me I had TWO checks at the CA state comptroller's office for a small amount and it had been there for a while? So I logged in and had one for $1.04 and another for $0.46 and both were for paying off some student loans I had in 1991! So I got them back too........don't want to mess up their book keeping.

[vash]

i kinda think that error is acceptable.

i bet thousands of checks go out daily. how do they draw the line with the amount that qualifies as "heck! this is so small the recipient cant possibly need this!" under a dollar? under $10?

send it all out as promised, no matter how retarded. i've never tapped into unemployment..thank GOD!! i'd want it there in all of it's clumsy glory.

[jhynesrockmtn]

It happens in the corporate world as well. Cancelled a business costco membership in 2015 as I was leaving a small non profit. This was a membership that came with a citibank visa. 2 1/2 years later, multiple phone calls with citibank, etc. and they keep sending me a statement with a negative balance of -$1.88

[SoCal911T]

When I moved a few years ago, I got a check from Geico. Apparently my new neighborhood is $1.28 safer than my old one.
I really doubt there were any humans involved in your refund. Whatever the case, it's not worth getting worked up over.

[RonDent]

You all assume there is a accrual person involved here. This is just a stupid commuter pumping out what it's programmed to do. Programmed by the lowest bidder I might add. The government won't pay for a new system that might be more efficient and in the long run save money. But in the short term cost too much. So, we get this.

[wildthing]

Wait, so who licks the envelopes?

[vash]

Originally Posted by wildthing

Wait, so who licks the envelopes?

DUH!! completely different department for envelope adhesion activation (E.A.A.)

[Alfasrule]

Can't wait for robots!
Computers are stupid I know worked with them for over 35 years.
We use to live in caves. Do we really need all this crap?
My lowest was believe or not 19 cents!!! Hanging in my Man Cave.
Dollar here dollar there is all ads up. Postage etc... We are getting more Stupid
rather than getting Smarter, maybe we are DE-evolving?

Reference fictitious Superman 3 Richard Prior was able to develop a program to obtain all the fractional money the company didn't pay it's workers, and got BOAT load of money!
THE FERRARI! Funny part.

[stomachmonkey]

You are looking at this from your POV, the $0.78 seems pointless.

But think about how many people are owed low, forgettable, dollar amounts.

It's going to add up.

They can do one of two things, keep it or disburse it.

Imagine the **** storm when someone figures out they have a 7 figure surplus for not disbursing.

Reminds me of,

[Dantilla]

Originally Posted by jhynesrockmtn

It happens in the corporate world as well.

Yup.

Originally Posted by RonDent

You all assume there is a accrual person involved here.

Sometimes it is a human.

Eons ago I had a Discover card. After cancelling, every month I got a statement in the mail with a $4.00 credit.
After a year or so, I called, and the nice human told me they would send a check for the $4 and quit sending statements.

Next month- A statement with an $8.00 credit!

[Scott Douglas]

Hey, I've got one of those accounts too. I set it up to direct deposit my EDD checks into our checking account when I was laid off. When the EDD checks quit coming after I retired, I just left it alone. I get an email once a month saying my account balance is available on-line but have never checked it.
Think maybe I should?

[nzporsche944s2]

I applied for a government student loan back at university but I never drew down on it. For 15 years after graduating I kept receiving statements every 6 months with a zero balance no matter how many phone calls I made to them!

[Crowbob]

Originally Posted by nzporsche944s2

I applied for a government student loan back at university but I never drew down on it. For 15 years after graduating I kept receiving statements every 6 months with a zero balance no matter how many phone calls I made to them!

Maybe I'm not reading this correctly, which is likely. You were calling university for 15 years?

I would think after a few times, you'd stop calling them because it was obvious they were not going to up your balance and they were only going to send you one statement every six months.

[nzporsche944s2]

Originally Posted by Crowbob

Maybe I'm not reading this correctly, which is likely. You were calling university for 15 years?

I would think after a few times, you'd stop calling them because it was obvious they were not going to up your balance and they were only going to send you one statement every six months.

The student loan scheme is through the government and administered by the Inland Revenue Department (equivalent to your IRS). When you start earning income the loan is repaid as a percentage of your earnings.

I guess in my case my earnings triggered that a repayment was due on my zero balance. I kept ringing the IRD to tell them to stop wasting their time. I only called for a few years after the statements started coming and then just ignored them but they still kept coming for 15 years.

[widebody911]

I was audited by the IRS years ago, and got a letter telling me I owed 86 cents

[timchar]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Back when Medi-Cal paid for my services, I got hundreds of checks for less than a nickel, that cost 10 times that to mail to me.

Years ago, I would take a small percentage of Medi-Cal, it wasn't worth it to even bill for services, so I never did. Tim