North Carolina Unemployment Benefits Cuts Harshest In Country: Report

[octoberlib]

Later this week, North Carolina is expected to drastically reduce unemployment benefits for its residents, who face the fifth-highest unemployment rate in the country. The state joins seven others that have trimmed back benefits for the jobless since the recession.

Beginning in July, North Carolina would slash the maximum number of weeks a jobless worker can collect unemployment insurance from 26 to as few as 12. The new law would also reduce the maximum weekly benefit from $530 to $350 per person.
North Carolina's cuts are the deepest to unemployment benefits in the country and mean the state will also lose out on federal unemployment benefits, according to a new report on the proposal from the National Employment Law Project. Federal benefits are linked to the number of weeks and amount of money a person receives from his or her state. Approximately 80,000 North Carolina workers would be affected, the report found.

“It was bad enough when legislators in high-unemployment states like Michigan and Florida made drastic cuts to their unemployment insurance programs, while so many remained out of work,” Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, a worker advocacy group, said in a statement released with the report. “But the situation in North Carolina -- cutting state benefits and rejecting federal aid -- is beyond the pale."

The changes in North Carolina highlight one of the most painful consequences of the economic downturn: long-term unemployment. The average length of joblessness is 35 weeks, and even as the national unemployment rate hovers at nearly 8 percent, the safety net for out-of-work Americans continues to shrink.
Until the recession, all 50 states offered workers up to 26 weeks of unemployment insurance, the standard benefit period since the program was created in the 1950s. Florida and Georgia are among the seven states that have reduced the length of their unemployment programs to as few as 14 weeks. Michigan, Missouri and South Carolina have eliminated six full weeks of benefits. Arkansas and Illinois have cut one week of benefits.
Republican Governor Pat McCrory and GOP lawmakers pushed for the cuts in North Carolina, arguing that unemployment taxes have crippled the state's finances. North Carolina businesses pay higher federal taxes because the state has been slow to repay $2.5 billion it borrowed from Washington to pay jobless benefits in recent years, The Huffington Post previously reported.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/11/north-carolina-unemployment-benefits-cuts_n_2662511.html

[littlemissmartypants]

1. US Labor Secretary criticizes state unemployment bill

Harris pegs the number of workers who could lose extended federal benefits at 170,000, much higher than the 80,000-to-100,000 estimates that have been bandied about the state. And he says the federal government will have "no discretion" to cut off the aid.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10691522

[Lex]

2. McCrory has NC in a race to the bottom.

He and his hateful band of GOP'ers are going to wreck this state.

[blkmusclmachine]

3. .

.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

4. Hope the brain dead who voted for these sociopaths

are happy & that many of their own are affected by this shit. Seriously. Some people have to learn the hard way.

[littlewolf]

5. this truly sucks ...

I have friends that were laid off as a result of the Hostess action,
they ran the outlet bread store.
how will this effect the fed side?

[octoberlib]

7. They'll be cut off after 26 weeks

In his news release,US Labor Secretary Harris wrote:
"The North Carolina legislature is considering legislation that would reduce state Unemployment Insurance benefits. If enacted, the legislation also would cut off all federally funded Emergency Unemployment Compensation — that is, benefits after 26 weeks of unemployment — to 170,000 unemployed North Carolinians. This cutoff is automatic under federal law. I have no discretion to stop it. As a result, families struggling to secure their place in the middle class will suffer a grievous blow, and the state's economy will lose $780 million in federal funds that are vital to reducing North Carolina's high unemployment rate.

[barbtries]

6. i knew it would be bad

when they got the super majority last November. they seem intent on making sure it's as bad as it can possibly be.
i wish i could move back home now.