PJ: The majority of any population does not relish the thought of being forced onto the unemployment rolls. Unemployment benefits are hardly enough to help with the rent and put food in the frig. But in times of high unemployment, many have no choice but to file for assistance. Finding a job...any job...takes a lot of time and the longer a person is without employment the more difficult finding a job becomes.
Some politicians have hypothesized that accepting unemployment benefits makes a person lazy...that people who receive benefits do not want to work. Perhaps that is true for a tiny minority...as in any society there are always those who are willing to accept less from life. But the majority of people who receive unemployment benefits would much rather have a wage which provides for more than the basic necessities for their existence; they desperately want to climb out of the financial hole that they have found themselves. Ironically these same politicians cry that the only real job of a government should be in keeping its citizens secure. At a time of national economic crisis, helping to keep people secure means more than military might in foreign wars and (electrically charged) border fences.
The Sydney Morning Herald
7m jobless in US can no longer claim dole
WASHINGTON: The US economic slump has lasted so long that more than half of the 14 million Americans without a job can no longer claim unemployment benefits. Only 48 per cent of the jobless are receiving payments, compared with 75 per cent early last year.
The dramatic fall is despite the unemployment rate remaining stuck above 9 per cent and emergency measures to stretch out payments further than at any time since World War II.
As Americans have lost their benefits, the number claiming emergency food stamps has surged to a post-war high of 45 million, compared to 26 million at the peak of the 1990s recession.
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Unlike in Australia, the unemployed cannot stay on the dole indefinitely. In the US, only workers who have been laid off qualify for benefits. College graduates and school leavers unable to find work are ineligible.
In the present downturn, retrenched employees receive the equivalent of about half the median wage, or $US300 a week, for a maximum of 99 weeks.
The period is derived from a complicated formula. Employers pay a state payroll tax that funds up to 26 weeks of regular benefits for workers who lose their jobs.
Depending on the depth of the economic downturn, state governments may borrow money from the federal government to offer an extended benefits program. Washington can enact emergency procedures to further top up benefits.
A combination of those provisions stretched total benefit payments to about 65 weeks in the 1974-75 recession, and to about a year in the downturn in the early 1980s.
The President, Barack Obama, managed to win approval for an extension of benefits last year.
However, Congress will soon have to decide whether to continue funding Washington's share of the 99-week benefits program. Should it fail to extend the program, 2 million more unemployed workers will lose their benefits in February.
As it stands, the program is ''uniquely generous'' compared to provisions available to the unemployed in previous post-war recessions, said Gary Burtless, a labour markets specialist and Brookings Institution fellow, Gary Burtless. ''Ninety-nine weeks is really an outlier … and it's somewhat unusual in the sense that the federal Treasury has said, 'We'll pay for all of those benefits beyond 26 weeks.'''
http://www.smh.com.au/world/7m-jobless-in-us-can-no-longer-claim-dole-20111202-1obew.html#ixzz1fqjUeELs
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