The Democratically-controlled Senate refused to extend Unemployment Benefits during probably the longest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930's. I work in this for a living and I want to talk about what is unemployment insurance.
The economic slowdown called the Great Recession began in the summer of 2007, so it is about 3 years old. The economist say it started about November, 2007, but the economy had slowed down a lot before then. There are about 15,000,000 people unemployed, officially, and the unemployment rate is almost 10 percent, and has been around that level for about 2 years. There are several million people that have gotten discouraged and have quit looking for work, or work part time, usually without benefits, and would really like full-time work. This program was signed into law in 1935 by President Franklin Roosevelt, so it's 75 years old. It became law about the same time that social security was enacted.
Unemployment Insurance (UI{ is for people that were employed, generally full time workers. The amount of UI depends on wages they earned is the first 4 out of the last 5 calendar quarters. If you don't make much, your weekly direct deposit is usually very small. In many states the maximum amount of UI is ususally from 300 to 500 per week. It various between state. It is usually basic on the average wages paid is the state. High wage states usually have higher weekly UI benefit payments. Lower wage states have much lower weekly benefits.
The UI recipient generally has to become unemployed based on no fault of their own. If they were negligent in some way they won't quality for UI benefits. The employer can protest the UI claim and it will be determined if the protest in valid from an initial appeal adjudictaor, then if appealed further, a higher level authority such as an administrative law judge, then a final level usually called an appeal board. If the claimant losses this they can take it to the local state court, usually called a district court.
The UI payments are usually about half to 60 percent of the UI claimant's average wages. It usually ends in about 20 weeks, but it is usually drawn for about 10 weeks before the claimant finds a new job.
This was actually about the only tax that Milton Friedman liked. He said that it was a truly worthy tax. We really value work and this rewards work, or lack thereof.
Many people that are drawing it now have went back to work a year ago, only to see their new job end.
This is really about the only lifeline to most people. People usually don't prepare for unemployment. They may know that they might lose their job soon, but it happens usually much sooner, and is much more traumatic than they thought.
Extend unemployment benefits