Are unemployment benefits no longer temporary?

[alienlovechild 75]

About 11.4 million out-of-work people now collect unemployment compensation, at a cost of $10 billion a month. Half of them have been receiving payments for more than six months, the usual insurance limit. But under multiple extensions enacted by the federal government in response to the downturn, workers can collect the payments for as long as 99 weeks in states with the highest unemployment rates -- the longest period since the program's inception.

The unemployed say extensions help to tide them over in unusually difficult times when jobs are hard to come by. Although unemployment held steady at 9.7 percent in February, millions of jobs have been lost in the downturn, particularly in the hardest-hit sectors including real estate, construction, manufacturing and financial services. Those jobs are unlikely to return even when the economy recovers, many experts say.

But complaints that extending unemployment payments discourages job-seeking have begun to bubble into the political debate. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) recently single-handedly held up the latest extension, a bill to keep unemployment benefits in place for 30 more days, saying Congress should find other cuts to cover its $10 billion price tag.

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) did not join Bunning's effort, but he defended his colleague's point of view. Kyl told the Senate he questioned why anyone would see unemployment benefits as helpful to the economy, or to the job market.

"If anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work," Kyl said. "I am sure most of them would like work and probably have tried to seek it, but you can't argue it is a job enhancer."

Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the National Employment Law Center, says there's a good reason people are out of work for so long. There are six unemployed Americans for every available job, he said.

The 14.9 million jobless Americans have been out of work an average of 29.7 weeks, just below January's 30.2-week average. Those levels are the highest since the government began keeping those records in the 1950s, according to Stettner.

The ranks of the unemployed include Jerome Boyd, 48, a father of four who lives in Arlington. He was laid off in August from his job as a sous chef at Gaylord National Hotel at National Harbor.

He receives $1,200 a month in unemployment benefits, less than half the $3,000 a month he brought home from his job. Now he is often behind paying about $1,500 in rent, a car payment and other expenses. "I'm stealing from Peter to pay Paul," he said, adding: "There's the cable, the phone bill. I owe the bank overdraft fees and the insurance is lapsing a little bit. I can't take my kids shopping for school clothes because I don't have enough to do that."

States determine the amount of the benefits, but they average 36 percent of the average weekly wage, according to the National Employment Law Center. Recipients must look for work. Boyd said he has applied for 20 jobs in the past four months but has gotten only a few calls back. He has, however, looked only for jobs that pay above the minimum wage.

Unemployment benefits were created as part of the Social Security Act of 1935, intended to provide the unemployed some portion of their income while helping the economy weather down times. Nearly two-thirds of the jobless collect unemployment benefits, which go only to those who have earned a certain amount of money in the previous year, and who lost their jobs through no fault of their own.

Although the availability of long-term unemployment benefits "could dampen people's efforts to look for work," the Congressional Budget Office said in a February report, that concern "is less of a factor when employment opportunities are expected to be limited for some time."

The report went on to say that people receiving unemployment benefits tend to plow the money right back into the economy, making them "both timely and cost-effective in spurring economic activity and employment."

"It is appropriate and natural for Congress to extend the time limit of unemployment insurance with the job market as bad as it is," said James Sherk, a labor economist at the Heritage Foundation. "But by quadrupling it, it is no longer an unemployment insurance program but a welfare program."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0804927_pf.html

[Ali G. 37]

Does everyone receive the same rate here?

I am not exactly sure how it works here but in AUS, everyone gets the same rate. You have to sign up to a range of programs and must search for 14 jobs every two weeks. Specific details of each application are then recorded into a log and that is reviewed every month or so. After 6 months, you basically have to work for the dole by means of community service. This amongst other things enables people to at least qualify for the dole, for as long as it takes to find them a job.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Does everyone receive the same rate here?

I am not exactly sure how it works here but in AUS, everyone gets the same rate. You have to sign up to a range of programs and must search for 14 jobs every two weeks. Specific details of each application are then recorded into a log and that is reviewed every month or so. After 6 months, you basically have to work for the dole by means of community service. This amongst other things enables people to at least qualify for the dole, for as long as it takes to find them a job.

No salary dependent.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Does everyone receive the same rate here?

I am not exactly sure how it works here but in AUS, everyone gets the same rate. You have to sign up to a range of programs and must search for 14 jobs every two weeks. Specific details of each application are then recorded into a log and that is reviewed every month or so. After 6 months, you basically have to work for the dole by means of community service. This amongst other things enables people to at least qualify for the dole, for as long as it takes to find them a job.

Varies from state to state.

[Ali G. 37]

Hmm since it varies, keeping it indefinitely is not a wise idea. Maybe after 6 months, everyone should be on the same rate.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

"Whatever you subsidize you get more of; Whatever you tax you get less of"

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

"Whatever you subsidize you get more of; Whatever you tax you get less of"

True. So what do we do with this? Tax on layoff's, subsidy on hiring?

[Nikita2Charles 33]

That's one of the main reason I do beleive in TERM LIMIT, these guys have been in Washington for so long, they lost touch with real people, only fly back or hang around in time comes election time, or fundraising.

NO MORE THAN 2 TERMS FOR ANY MEMBER OF CONGRESS

They will not pass this law onto themselves because they make politcs a career of screwing the american people, If someone knows the law he/she is working on to pass may affect them in the future, or maybe one of their family members, relatives, they'll be thinking twice about it, because they might be the one on the other side of the coin one day.

HOW COME THEY DON"T OUTSOURCE THOSE CEO,

That's a great saving to the shareholders, you can get one from China or India for much less. Where's the value added stuff, as long as it's not ME, ME, ME.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Terms limits ain't the answer. They do this in many state legislatures and local councils. Here in sunny Florida, for example. And the state legislature here isn't any better than the guys in D.C. - maybe even worse. What you gotta do is limit the ability of legislators to be bribed and bought. As long as legislation can be purchased, the legislative process will remain a farce whether you have term limits or not.

[justashooter 430]

Hmm since it varies, keeping it indefinitely is not a wise idea. Maybe after 6 months, everyone should be on the same rate.

in most states weekly UC is 35-50% of average weekly earnings in highest of previous 5 quarters, with a cap around $500 per week. the cap does "keep it the same", but the 35-50% is hard on people who do not have significant resources stashed away, unless they work under the table, which many do.