Petition: The 99ers need a Tier V added to Unemployment Benefits

[tonysam]

Petition:

Senators and Representatives:

You should be ashamed of yourself, and here's why:

You have decided to ignore the people you reduced to poverty. The longest unemployed workers did not create this depression, you did. You did this with your failure to regulate the banks, health industry, and corporations. People who were fully employed, paying taxes, and raising families are now paying the price for your negligence. They trusted you to keep something like this from happening. You failed them.

Now you are deliberately failing them again. This may be a recession for you, but it's a depression for them. You know this depression will last longer than until March, yet you have no plans to add additional unemployment tiers to keep these people from becoming increasingly destitute. Tens of thousands will begin to lose all financial support on March 14. You know with full clarity that these benefits are the only money keeping food on their tables. You know that their benefits run out in March, and that these American families will be on the path to shelters and soup kitchens.

...and this is not of their making. They're not to blame. You are.

...and you're about to discount them again by allowing their benefits to end with Tier IV.

By the way, don't pride yourself on extending the current benefits for the more recently unemployed, as included in the Job Bill. Of course you should do this, but as you know, the bill as it is written will not help any of those who have been the longest and hardest hit by this depression. The Job Bill only half addresses the unemployed, and 50% is an F.

Please make sure that the only choice for Americans who want to work is either a job or unemployment benefits. Don't end benefits until there are jobs for them. As of now, there is only 1 job for every 6 unemployed workers. Take care of these victims.

ADD A TIER V

Petition

[Nimrod1]

1. Agreed. There needs to be a Tier 5

I know so many of my friends and relatives who have run out or about to run out of Tier 4 benefits.

The benefits were the only thing sustaining them.

[tonysam]

4. Myself included. It's scary out there.

I will have to move from another state to live with family in Oregon until I can get retrained in something. I am making an appointment with the local community college next week.

Cute to be forced to retrain for something else at age 55 and with a master's degree.

[DesertFlower]

2. i signed the petition.

[Hannah Bell]

3. k/r: lead or get out of the way.

[aquart]

5. Signed.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. done

[tonysam]

7. Here's a very clear explanation of the shell game Congress is pulling

There’s been a great deal of confusion surrounding the Democrats’ proposals to extend the filing deadline for unemployment benefits, which came and went yesterday. And it’s easy to see why. A number of media outlets have reported that the Democratic bills include “an extension of UI benefits,” or some variation thereof. (The Associated Press, for example, wrote a widely circulated piece last week indicating that the Senate bill “would continue to provide additional weeks of benefits to jobless people whose unemployment insurance would otherwise expire.”)

Reports like that one have raised the spirits of many long-term unemployed folks, who are hoping that Congress will create additional tiers of benefits. Sorry in advance for being the bearer of bad news, but the proposals floating around Capitol Hill wouldn’t do it.

“It is not a new tier,” the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) clarified today, “but rather an extension of the expiration of the tiers.”

The confusion stems largely from the bewildering framework of the UI system itself. Very generally, states offer 26 weeks of benefits to qualified unemployed workers before four tiers (maximum) of federal benefits — dubbed Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) – kick in.

Tier I (20 weeks) and Tier II (13 weeks) were created by last year’s $787 billion stimulus bill. And last fall, lawmakers stepped in again to (1) add an extra week to Tier 2, making it 14 weeks instead of 13 weeks, (2) create Tier III (13 weeks) for states with unemployment rates higher than 6 percent, and (3) create Tier IV (6 weeks) for states with unemployment rates topping 8.5 percent.

The problem: Beneficiaries must exhaust the benefits they’re receiving before they can file for the next level. Because that filing deadline was yesterday, those exhausting their Tier I, II or III benefits from now forward won’t be eligible for the next level without congressional action.

The House passed a six-month filing extension in December. And Senate lawmakers are currently eying plans to go further, extending the filing deadline at least through December, and maybe two months longer. But neither plan would, for example, add a Tier V.

Washington Independent post dated March 1

These "representatives" haven't done real squat for the long-term unemployed for six stinking months.

[lib2DaBone]

8. K/R I signed... and what is scary.. there is nothing to be re-trained for..

No part of our economy is moving... construction, retail, transportation, public service... nothing is moving. Go back to school and re-train for what?

Jobs are still going to China... and the large Corporations are getting rich by cutting workers and making the remaining workers "more productive". Big corps LOVE this recesion. Nothing has changed and nothing is about to change, as long as the cash if flowing into their poickets.

[tonysam]

9. Kick again. n/t