Jobless in Texas fight uphill battle when filing claim, By Peggy Fikac, August 15, 2009, Houston Chronicle: “If you lose your job in Texas, you may be out of luck in more ways than one. The Texas Workforce Commission rejected about a third of all jobless claims last year and 27 percent the first half of this year. When jobless people appealed those initial decisions, their chances of winning this year were only about one in four. The controversial reason for the denials is Texas’ tight list of eligibility standards, which the Legislature refused to expand even when offered $555 million more in federal stimulus money in return. Gov. Rick Perry, who led the opposition to the measure, said it would be bad for Texas in the long run…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty