- Long-term jobless see reduction in benefits, By William M. Welch, May 17, 2011, USA Today: “Peter Gordon has been out of work for more than a year, and his $233-a-week unemployment checks stopped last month. ‘I’m getting by,’ he says, ‘but just barely.’ Gordon, 53, of St. Louis, worked in call centers and as a patient coordinator at a hearing clinic before being laid off. Last month, Missouri became the first state to quit the federal program that provides an additional 20 weeks of extended benefits for people such as Gordon: the long-term unemployed who have exhausted their otherwise-maximum 79 weeks of benefits. Missouri’s Legislature reversed itself after a group of Republican lawmakers upset with federal spending backed off a fillibuster aimed at forcing cuts in benefits. That means thousands of people, including Gordon, will be eligible after all to receive an unemployment check for 20 more weeks…”
- New bill could cut unemployment benefits, By Mary Ann Milbourn, May 16, 2011, Orange County Register: “A new bill working its way through Congress would help states like California pay off the billions they’ve borrowed from the federal government to fund unemployment benefits, but it could result in the early cutoff of the 99 weeks of extended jobless aid. Rep. David Camp, R-Mich., who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced the bill, called the Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits and Services Act of 2011 (JOBS Act). The legislation, H.R. 1745, would take the $31 billion earmarked to pay extended unemployment benefits through the end of the year and allow states to use the money for other unemployment or job-related purposes…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty