[quote=briansd1][quote=UCGal] Her unemployment covers her mortgage… barely. ($450/week doesn’t go far.) She’s single with a grown son with health issues. They’re using food banks, etc to get buy. Her 401k has been diminished. This is a woman who’s only debt was her mortgage [/quote]

How is she paying for health insurance? Is she paying COBRA? COBRA assistance (government paid 1/2) will soon expire and she’ll have to cover the whole amount of health insurance out of pocket (maybe $800/mo but likely more than $500/mo)

Medi-cal is means tested so if she has savings, she and her son will likely not qualify until they exhaust personal resources.[/quote]

She is, or at least was, on cobra.
She’s been selling things in her house to get extra cash. She’s liquidated her non-retirement savings and is now at the point where she’s going to have to dip into her retirement savings… Not good for someone middle aged. Not only the penalty – but how do you make up for that loss of savings when you’re no longer young.

Her son is on mediCal. He’s an adult – but recently had an extreme medical circumstance that landed him in the hospital/skilled nursing care for months. He cannot go back to work, yet. Physically can’t do it. I’m pretty sure he’s on disability.

She’s been participating in every training available through EDD. (Actually, EDD provided some pretty good opportunities for certificates in specialty IT fields at UCSD – she’s been all over that.) She’s also been boning up on other skills to make herself more marketable.

It’s not pretty out there. If you have a job – don’t piss off your boss. If you don’t… good luck.