After his welfare limits veto is overridden, Nixon vetoes unemployment changes, By Jason Hancock, May 5, 2015, Kansas City Star: “Lawmakers voted Tuesday to override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a bill that would cut thousands of low-income Missourians off of a federal welfare program. Meantime, Nixon vetoed a separate bill that would cut the amount of time a laid-off worker could collect jobless benefits to 13 weeks from 20 weeks. Republican leaders spoke confidently that they could override that veto, too…”
Tag: Jobless benefits
State Unemployment Insurance Trust Funds
Could states afford jobless benefits if another recession hits?, By Jake Grovum, April 22, 2015, Stateline: “Tens of billions of dollars in debt. Cuts to jobless aid that have been called ‘historic and disturbing.’ Unemployment insurance trust funds that are still clawing their way back to solvency. This is the Great Recession’s legacy for the nation’s unemployment safety net. The sustained downturn and spike in joblessness stressed state programs to an extent not seen in decades, requiring emergency federal aid. Now, unemployment nationwide has fallen to 5.5 percent and the amount of unemployment benefits paid in the states has dropped to pre-recession norms in many cases. Federal jobless aid to extend benefits expired last year. Yet many state unemployment insurance trust funds still face a deficit. Those that are in the black often have balances below pre-recession peaks. And many states are paying less in benefits. The result is a safety net significantly weaker than it was before the recession…”
Unemployment Benefits
Most of the unemployed don’t receive jobless benefits, NELP report says, By Olivera Perkins, February 4, 2015, Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Only about 25 percent of unemployed workers received jobless benefits last year — a record low, according to a report by the National Employment Law Project. Contrast that with 2010, when 68 percent of workers received benefits, according to the report released Tuesday, which makes public policy recommendations often aimed at helping the long-term unemployed. People join the ranks of the long-term unemployed when they have been without work for at least six months. Just before the recession began in December 2007, 37 percent of the unemployed received benefits, the report said…”