Poverty rates growing in Ohio, Ky., By Mike Rutledge, July 3, 2010, Cincinnati Enquirer: “Even before the Great Recession started in late 2007, Ohio and Kentucky poverty rates were hitting highs for the decade. Ohio’s poverty level rose above the national average for the first time all decade in 2007 and 2008. In Kentucky, where poverty was 2.6 percentage points above the national average in 2000, that disparity grew to 4.1 points by 2008, according to Enquirer research. But in 2008 – the last time for which poverty estimates are available – Kentucky’s annual unemployment rate was still a low 6.6 percent, while Ohio’s for May was 6.3 percent. A year later, Kentucky’s unemployment rate reached 10.5 percent while Ohio’s seasonally adjusted rate for May was 10.3 percent. The rates have remained at about those 2009 levels in May of this year for both states. Social service agencies believe when 2009 poverty rates are announced this fall, they will be higher than the 2008 levels…”
Day: July 7, 2010
Exhaustion of Jobless Benefits
- No work, and now no safety net, By Diane Stafford, June 30, 2010, Kansas City Star: “In just one week and in just one state – last week in Missouri – more than 8,300 people fell through the unemployment insurance safety net. Actually, their nets were removed. The result: Those who have lost jobless benefits already are turning in greater numbers to food pantries and other emergency aid programs, both government and nonprofit. ‘We’re hearing from more people needing assistance,’ said Ron Howard, spokesman for the United Way of Greater Kansas City. ‘Our 2-1-1 call center is seeing an increase in calls, especially from first-time callers. Without a doubt, the loss of that unemployment check is a contributing factor.’ Loss of jobs and jobless benefits also is contributing to a rise in applications for Social Security disability payments from unsuccessful job hunters. That search for subsistence funds revved up last month after the U.S. Senate rejected a bill that would have included more than $35 billion to fund another extension of emergency unemployment assistance…”
- Jobless benefits running out for 147,000 Floridians this week, By Jim Stratton, July 7, 2010, Orlando Sentinel: “More than 147,000 Floridians will run out of unemployment benefits this week because the U.S. Senate, before leaving on a weeklong summer vacation, was unable to reach an agreement on how to keep payments flowing. By the end of next week, the number will rise to 175,000 unless lawmakers reauthorize the federal legislation that has provided emergency payments to the long-term unemployed. The standoff pits deficit hawks – Republicans primarily – against Democrats in a battle of politics and economic policy. The GOP says the country simply can’t afford to reauthorize the benefits package – it would cost about $34 billion – unless money is found from somewhere else in the federal budget. But Democrats and other supporters of the measure say it’s important to keep checks moving, even if that means borrowing the money and adding to the deficit…”
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program
Widespread fraud found in utility program for poor, By Nathan Hurst, July 2, 2010, Detroit News: “More than $116 million was wasted in fraud and improper payments to people in seven states — including Michigan — who faked information on applications for a federal program created to help poor families pay for heating their homes, a Government Accountability Office report shows. In the worst cases, applicants using the Social Security numbers of dead people were given up to $1,100 each. Others received benefits while they were in prison, living in mansions, driving luxury cars or making well over the maximum income allowed by the program. All told, $5 billion was spent by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program in 2009, and GAO investigators found 9 percent of cases in seven states — Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Virginia — involved fraud. Those states distributed roughly one-third of the federal heating assistance dollars in 2009. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she was ‘very disturbed’ by the report…”