- Plan to overhaul state’s unemployment system moves forward, By David Ranii, January 8, 2013, Charlotte Observer: “A bill to overhaul the state’s unemployment system is poised to be introduced when the state legislature convenes at the end of this month after a draft proposal was voted out of committee Tuesday. The Republican-backed proposal, which would cut the maximum benefits paid to unemployed workers by roughly one-third, has the support of the N.C. Chamber, the influential voice of the business community. But advocates for the poor have criticized the proposal for favoring the interests of business and hurting workers who lost jobs through no fault of their own…”
- Gov. Scott Walker’s rules overhaul would make it harder to obtain unemployment benefits, By Jason Stein, January 16, 2013, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “A sweeping overhaul of the state’s rules being sought by Gov. Scott Walker would rewrite hundreds of regulations, eliminating dozens of them outright and doing everything from tightening the standards for receiving jobless benefits to changing rules to curb acid rain. Just before his ‘state of the state’ speech Tuesday, Walker released a report on the findings of a board of small-business owners and lawmakers he commissioned to overhaul the state’s regulations and boost the economy. The report, which represented the only new policy details accompanying Walker’s speech, runs the gamut from the controversial to the mundane. The unemployment insurance changes will likely be contentious, since they will make it harder to receive the benefits at a time when many in Wisconsin are still out of work…”
- Tougher jobless rules have cost few their benefits in TN, By Duane Marsteller, January 11, 2013, The Tennessean: “New, tougher work search requirements haven’t resulted in many jobless Tennesseans being kicked off unemployment yet, state figures show. Fewer than 800 people have lost their benefits because they did not look for work or provided no evidence that they did so as required, according to figures from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. That’s just 6 percent of the more than 13,000 verification checks the agency has done in the past three months. Supporters are calling the effort an early success despite the low violation rate, citing state estimates that it has saved taxpayers at least $185,000 so far…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty