As unemployment insurance debts mount, interest payments loom, By Pamela M. Prah, February 16, 2011, Stateline.org: “For more than two years, stubbornly high unemployment has been taking a toll on the nation’s workforce, but for states, the mounting costs of paying benefits to millions of people who can’t find work are only beginning to become clear. Come this fall, some 30 states will be on the hook for paying $1.3 billion to the federal government for loans they took out to keep sending unemployment checks to workers who’ve lost their jobs. And that’s just the interest. In total, states owe the feds more than $42 billion, a tab they hope will evaporate on its own as the economy improves but will require decreasing benefits or raising taxes on businesses if it doesn’t…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty