Unemployment Benefits – Florida

Posted on May 9, 2011 by townsend

• Florida would be only state to tie unemployment benefits to jobless rate, By Marcia Pounds, May 5, 2011, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “If Florida’s Legislature approves the unemployment benefit bill passed by the Senate on Tuesday, Florida will be the only state that varies an unemployed worker’s weekly benefit with the jobless rate. An amended HB 7005, which returns to the House this week, is ‘the most damaging blow to unemployed workers yet,’ said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, in a press release. The legislation ‘would go further than any other state in dismantling its unemployment insurance system,’ Owens said. Under the House version, the national standard of 26 weeks of benefits would no longer be available to unemployed Florida workers. Instead, the maximum number of weeks would vary from 23 weeks when the state’s unemployment rate is as high as 10.5 percent to as low as 12 weeks when the rate drops to 5 percent…”
• Lawmakers cut unemployment benefits to 23 weeks, By Michael C. Bender, May 6, 2011, Miami Herald: “Out-of-work Floridians would receive fewer state benefits while businesses pay less tax under a controversial proposal approved Friday by a divided Legislature. The deal, which Gov. Rick Scott is expected to sign into law, immediately cuts unemployment benefits by 11.5 percent. Jobless Floridians would continue to receive a maximum payment of $275 per week, among the lowest of any state in the country. But it would be paid for no more than 23 weeks, instead of 26. Cutting the number of weeks was a victory for Scott and the Republican House, which had fought Senate sponsor Nancy Detert to reduce the number of weeks. The bill, HB 7005, passed along party lines in both the Senate and the House. The bill also creates a sliding scale that cuts and adds weeks of benefits based on the unemployment rate. Unemployment compensation would drop as low as 12 weeks once the average unemployment rate drops to 5 percent or lower. A week would be added for every 0.5 percent the jobless rate climbs…”