Jobless benefits should be extended / LJWorld.com

Archive for Thursday, November 13, 2008

By Michelle Singletary

November 13, 2008

Amid all the hustle and bustle to fix the economy, there's one thing we can't forget to address: the extension of unemployment insurance benefits and a broadening of the program to provide benefits to more people.

The U.S. employment ranks have shrunk by 1.2 million in the first 10 months of this year.

There is a safety net for a portion of the workers who have lost their jobs. Unemployment insurance provides partial wage replacement to unemployed workers while they look for work. Each state administers a separate unemployment insurance program.

In general, benefits are based on a percentage of an individual's earnings over a recent 52-week period - up to a state maximum amount.

Typically, you can get unemployment insurance benefits for up to 26 weeks in most states. When things get really bad, the federal government will extend the number of weeks that people can collect benefits. Congress temporarily added 13 more weeks in June.

I understand all the attention on helping corporations. The companies, after all, provide the jobs. But we've still got to help individuals who have been let go by ailing companies.

The average weekly benefit nationally for the unemployed was just $296.69 as of September.

On average, benefits replace about 36 percent of an unemployed worker's previous earnings.

What's most troubling about the unemployment insurance program is who qualifies. Many unemployed workers, especially those with lower incomes, don't.

"If you have to leave your job to take care of a sick kid, in many states you wouldn't qualify for benefits," says Chad Stone, chief economist for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "If you had a full-time job and can only find part-time work, you can't collect benefits in many states."

About two-thirds of states do not consider workers eligible for unemployment insurance if they are available only for part-time work.

In many states, low-wage workers are unfairly denied benefits because the method used to determine eligibility does not count all of their latest earnings, according to the National Employment Law Project.

Additionally, temporary workers and those who are routinely misclassified by their employers as independent contractors often lose out on unemployment benefits.

There's a chance that an economic stimulus package will contain provisions to extend unemployment benefits. However, any measure that is passed should also include provisions to update the eligibility rules for unemployment insurance benefits.

Discussion

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14 November 2008
at 2:10 a.m.

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fms (Anonymous) says…

Who's to say that we should have the government taking care of unemployment insurance? In my view, rather than having a program subject to significant fraud, it's much smarter to just tell people that they need to hold reserve funds in the bank for the proverbial rainy day - getting laid off, emergency house repairs, anything of that nature. It's still possible to buy that iPod or fancy new computer, but only AFTER you've taken responsibility for your solvency in the event something unexpected happens.
14 November 2008
at 2:35 a.m.

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SemperRideo (Anonymous) says…

What? And miss the chance for another government program? You must be one of those crazy-religious-right-wing-homophobic-racist-bigoted-hypocritical-did-I-mention-crazy?-wackos.