Current Unemployment Extension Benefits Up To February 2010—Who Benefits And Qualifies

[ipaint]

02/01/2010

The Miami Herald reported on the unemployment benefits extension in an article yesterday and tried to give some clarification to those who still wonder if they are going to receive more benefits or not.

According to the article, initial benefits lasting 26 weeks are what most people will qualify for when first signing up for unemployment benefits. The extensions come in four parts or tiers, with the extensions being for 20, 14, 13, and 6 weeks in duration for each tier, respectively.

If you exhaust your regular benefits by February 20th 2010, you will be able to move into the first tier. If you are in one of the tier extensions you have until the 27th of February for your current tier to expire so you can move into the next. The article goes on to say, whatever tier you are in on February 28th is your last. You will complete that tier and there will be no moving into a new tier.

http://www.rwbpress.com/2010/02/01/current-unemployment-extension-benefits-up-to-february-2010%E2%80%94who-benefits-and-qualifies/

A heads up for the unemployed here. For my husband and I once we lose benefits we are on the street. Luckily we start our 4th tier before the 27th of feb so we have a little bit of breathing room before our truck becomes our house. From the comments to the article we aren't alone.



Report: No Unemployment Benefits Extension in Senate Jobs Bill

Senate Democrats are piecing together another stimulus bill designed to tackle the ongoing unemployment crisis, but if the reports coming out of Capitol Hill today are any indication, the package is likely to be much smaller than the jobs bill passed by the House last month. Indeed, The Washington Post indicates that upper-chamber Democrats are eyeing a proposal in the $80-billion range — roughly half of the spending in the House version.

The Senate bill, the Post notes, “will be heavy on tax breaks designed to spur businesses to make new hires.”

Also of note: Unlike the House bill, the Senate proposal excludes an extension of unemployment benefits. Instead, the UI extension “may move” separately, the Post reports.

http://washingtonindependent.com/74793/report-no-unemployment-benefits-extension-in-senate-jobs-bill

[Abq_Sarah]

1. I wonder about the tax breaks

Giving my company tax credits that require me to spend thousands of dollars I don't have does not reduce unemployment.

Due to the shitty economy, businesses are paying higher unemployment taxes for longer periods. In some states, the rates are doubling or more which can effectively kill new hires. If you're unfortunate enough to have laid off employees, you pay a higher rate which doesn't help you rehire. It's a vicious circle.

[tonysam]

2. So why is this crap being posted again?

From Nevada's employment site:

I received a letter to file for State Extended Benefits (SEB), will this new
extension take the place of SEB or do I still file for SEB first?


SEB claims that do not have at least one week of benefits claimed prior to the beginning of EUC
Tier III claim filing, will be discontinued and Tier III benefits added to the EUC claim. Claimants in
this category will be notified, and instructed to file by Quick Claim or Internet. There should be
no delay in filing or payments. Once the EUC benefits exhaust the claimant will go back to SEB if
the state is still in a high unemployment category and paying state extended benefits.
If you have claimed more than one week on your SEB claim, you will continue to file your SEB
claim and remain on SEB claim until the claim is exhausted. At that point, if you are still
unemployed and do not qualify for a new regular Unemployment Insurance claim, then you may
be entitled to reopen your Emergency Unemployment TIER III claim and receive the additional
benefits.

There is NOTHING about anybody not receiving any extended benefits after February 28. Did this fucking "reporter" bother to ask the state employment office in Florida about the extensions? Of course not.

I am on state benefits and get that for a total seven more weeks added to the 13 I received. I have about three more weeks on it counting this week. Now according to the reporter, I won't get Tier III benefits that I am entitled to. I call bullshit on that. Sorry.

Reading the actual article from the Miami Herald, I am okay on Tier III. I wish the "blogger" would simply get the facts straight.

[ipaint]

3. It's posted again because you don't have a clue.

We contacted the Agency for Workforce Innovation. According to spokesman Robby Cunningham, the Extended Benefits Program ended on Nov. 6, 2009.

Cunningham provided a breakdown, below, of the current Unemployment Compensation programs:

State/regular benefits (paid from the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund) -- for up to 26 weeks.

These extensions are paid from federal funds:

Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier I is for up to 20 additional weeks;

Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier II is for up to 14 additional weeks;

Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier III is for up to 13 additional weeks;

Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier IV is for up to six additional weeks.

Under the latest extension, customers must exhaust available state/regular benefits on or before Feb. 20, 2010 to establish Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier I.

Customers must exhaust Tiers I, II, or III by Feb. 27, 2010 to be eligible for the next tier.

Whichever tier a customer is at on Feb. 28, 2010 will be the tier they complete and they will not be eligible for any additional tiers. The last week for which Emergency Unemployment Compensation could be paid is the week ending July 31, 2010.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/action-line/story/1453453.html

Emergency extended benefits will come to end, at different times depending on your situation, unless they are renewed by congress. If you are long term unemployed and into any of the extended benefit tiers, whatever tier of benefits you are in on feb 28th is the last tier of extended benefits you get.

[Techn0Girl]

11. I think I know who you are talking to (even though they show up on ignore to me)...

There is some person in Nevada who keeps responding to any unemployment post that I have. Unfortunately this person (if it's the same one) really doesn't understand what's going on :( and I eventually had to put them on ignore. They keep responding to ANY unemployment status updates and saying "It's not true!" and similar things.

You , of course are quite correct that, as things stand now, EVERYTHING expires Feb 28th and no more extensions will be granted after that date unless Congress acts tp change that at least by Feb 14th or so.

[ipaint]

4. The blogger did get his facts straight. You won't get tier 4.

A lot of folks don't know that and are expecting to get all the emergency levels of compensation. Unless congress does something folks on tier one of emergency benefits who expect to go to tier two in march are going to be in for a rude awakening.

The blogger quoted the miami herald article.

[FirstLight]

5. So, is this another crash waiting to happen?

If people are going to lose benefits somewhere between Feb-July (no matter what tier, it sounds like this is the case) are we looking at anotehr economic crunch as this comes to fruition?

There are no jobs for these folks, and the jobs that are out there are not living wage...so where does that leave a HUGE chunk of those who are unemployed...? (and BTW, where the hell DID all those jobs GO...? really? not all over seas, many businesses just went belly up, look at all the strip malls and storefronts closed across the country...)

I am thinking that it may get much worse if it ever gets better :scared:

No Jobs Bill is gonna help those who are hanging on by a thread NOW - much less those who will be joining us in the months to come.
And then, watch the dominoes fall as those people can't pay their mortgages and credit cards they have been living off of for the past years...

yikes

[ipaint]

6. Congress needs to act before Feb 12th.

They have 11 days.

More info here-

"First, if the federal UI benefits and programs (EUC, full funding of EB and the extra $25 per week) aren't extended beyond February 28th, a campaign for extra weeks of benefits will be moot -- there will be no program at all, and while those of you in the middle of a tier of benefits on the 28th would be able to finish out that tier, no one could move up to a new tier, and in March alone, over 1 million people would cease to have any benefits at all. Those numbers compound in the coming months, and next week, NELP will release a report detailing just how devastating it would be for these programs to expire. That’s why getting the programs continued beyond February 28th has to be the first order of business: The programs are the foundation everything is built upon, and if they expire, everything falls apart.

We have also been working with a very tight schedule here in DC. Congress did not come back into session until last week, couple that with the State of the Union Address and all that it entails, the Senate has yet to formally take up this issue, though much is going on behind the scenes. In addition, the Senate recesses the week of February 15th, and because the states need adequate time to keep their EUC programs up and running, in effect, this legislation needs to be passed by February 12, 2010 if the programs are going to continue without any major interruption. Given the consequences for all unemployed workers if the program expires—that NO ONE will have any safety net beyond their states benefits, regardless of how long they have been unemployed—the immediate priority has to be getting the program reauthorized so it doesn’t lapse."

http://www.unemployedworkers.org/sites/unemployedworkers/index.php

[Berry Cool]

7. It's all kind of difficult to figure out when you first look at it, but I did.

I just exhausted my state compensation, and just applied for and was accepted into Tier I of federal compensation. That means I get 20 more weeks if I need them. It also means that I will not have exhausted my benefits by the end of the month by any means, so all I will get, unless something changes, is this Tier I. That means that if I haven't found something or gone back to school by mid-June, I have to start living exclusively off my savings, or accept something that pays less than I'd be making on unemployment.

I understand that clearly. I would like to see more emergency legislation be passed. But I am not counting on it. I am going on the assumption that I will run out of benefits in mid-June.

[inna]

8. What are people supposed to do when they run out of benefits??

It's a serious, not a rhetorical, question!

[ipaint]

9. They are supposed to disappear, fall of the face of the earth.

Nobody gives a shit. I've been reading several chat boards of long term unemployed. Many are in their late 40's early and late 50's and early 60's. There are NO jobs anywhere. I'm 53 and my husband is 56 and we have been looking since last may...nothing.

Once emergency unemployment runs out we are on the street living in the truck. Some of the middle class may still have savings to fall back on but the working class is broke. This is not a regular run of the mill recession. The jobs are gone permanently for those of us in the 50-60 age range. We are both too old for a new career and too young for social security.
Many people in this age range have been unemployed for a year, 2 years or longer. Emergency unemployment is all that saves us from living in the street.

There are no plans for a tier five and it doesn't look like congress will meet the deadline in 10 days to continue tiers 1-4 past whatever current tier we are in as of the end of the month.

That will be hundreds of millions of dollars taken out of state economies as people fall out of eligibility in the next few months.

Absolutely pathetic. This country is beyond rehabilitation. Thank you neo-liberals and neo-cons of both parties the last 30 years. Splendid job.

[inna]

10. The lack of basic social safety net in this country is beyond deplorable.

It's shameful, unacceptable, tragic. :grr:

Meanwhile, countless trillions are being spent on wars and bankster bailouts. :banghead: