Unemployment Benefits Face an Even Bigger Cut
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
For hundreds, if not thousands, of Rhode Islanders, the impending loss of federal unemployment benefits next week—barring any 11th-hour action by Congress—casts a cloud over Thanksgiving. But those on the unemployment rolls could be facing yet another serious cut in benefits in just a few months, according to a spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training.
Currently, someone unemployed in Rhode Island can collect three types of unemployment benefits—listed below in the order in which they would receive them, starting with regular unemployment benefits. Under the status quo, someone on unemployment could receive some form of government benefits for a total of 99 weeks.
Regular unemployment insurance: 26 weeks
Federal emergency unemployment compensation: 53 weeks
State extended benefits: 20 weeks
That federal program consists of four “tiers” ranging from six weeks to 20 weeks. If the federal program does not get renewed by Nov. 30, a person will finish the time left on their particular tier, but they will not be able to advance to the next tier. Someone who is still on the regular program will jump ahead to the state extended benefits, according to Laura Hart, a spokeswoman for the Department of Labor and Training.
Unemployed could lose another 20 weeks of benefits
But next spring, Hart warns that state extended benefits could go away too. “So this time next year, you wouldn’t be looking at a 99-week maximum, you’d be looking at a 26-week maximum,” Hart told GoLocalProv.
Those state extended benefits are based on the unemployment rate. If the average rate over the last three months is less than the average three month rate for the same period in the previous year, the extended benefits are not continued. In other words, if the average unemployment rate for September, October, and November 2010 was less than the average for September, October, and November 2009, the program would have been halted. The calculation is a requirement of state statute, according to Hart.
Hart said the department is predicting that will happen sometime next April or May.
Other resources for the unemployed
“We really need to be looking at other resources that are available to people other than unemployment insurance,” Hart said. “I want people … to know there is more help out there.”
Each week, an estimated 150 people in Rhode Island lost their unemployment benefits, according to the Department of Labor and Training. That number is expected to rise over the next several months.
Yesterday, the department announced it was pointing Rhode Islanders who are out of work and out of unemployment benefits to a program known as United Way 2-1-1 in Rhode Island. Click here for more information.
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