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How Long Is Too Long For Unemployment Benefits?
Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | 1/11/2012 | Tom Gantert

Posted on 01/16/2012 3:02:41 PM PST by MichCapCon

A little more than 74,000 people in Michigan exhausted their state unemployment benefits through the first 11 months of 2011. That still left about 232,000 receiving unemployment benefits through the end of November, the most recent data the state has released.

How long unemployed workers should receive benefits has been a hot topic. Michigan’s unemployed have had the opportunity to receive benefits up to 99 weeks via 26 weeks of state benefits and a combination of federal extensions.

Michigan recently reduced the number of weeks someone can claim state unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 20 weeks before the federal extensions would kick in. For those newly unemployed as of Jan. 15, 2012, they will be eligible for up to 20 weeks of benefits, according to the state.

Michigan’s unemployment insurance is paid in full by employer-financed payroll taxes.

Charles Owens, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, said that the original intent of the law was to provide people some assistance until they could find another job. Owens argues that unemployment benefits are now becoming an entitlement program.

“The longer you extend benefits, the more you deviate from the intent of the law,” Owens said. “The idea was folks would be out looking for a job and this would tide them over.”

Owens said in a tough economy, there would be some people who need extended time to find a job.

“But there are a lot of people who adjusted their lifestyle to survive on this benefit,” Owens said.

Owens said that members of the NFIB have reported that some job applicants said they could start work, but not until their unemployment benefits ran out.

Matthew Mitchell, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, said that unemployment insurance decreases the incentive to look for another job.

“Absent the generous unemployment benefits, people will be willing to be underemployed,” Mitchell said.

Or, in sum, people respond to incentives.

Once state benefits are exhausted, unemployed workers are still eligible for benefits allowed by the federal government.

The federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program provides up to 53 weeks of unemployment benefits to workers who depleted their state unemployment benefits. The EUC program is scheduled to stop accepting applications on March 10, the same date the Extended Benefits program is scheduled to end, according to the state of Michigan.


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: welfare
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1 posted on 01/16/2012 3:02:45 PM PST by MichCapCon
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To: MichCapCon

Over the years I’ve come to view this issue as an issue of teaching kids values. I know people who took unemployment and it ate them up because they wanted to work. I also know people — in my own family — who milked the system for as long as possible without even looking for work. We have to get back to teaching kids the value of work and to be ashamed of living off the dole.


2 posted on 01/16/2012 3:10:56 PM PST by Opinionated Blowhard ("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")
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To: MichCapCon

Beyond three months.


3 posted on 01/16/2012 3:12:01 PM PST by dfwgator (Don't wake up in a roadside ditch. Get rid of Romney.)
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To: MichCapCon

Remember the old term “saving for a rainy day”? No need for that now that we have government.


4 posted on 01/16/2012 3:13:11 PM PST by Proud2BeRight
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To: MichCapCon

How Long Is Too Long For Unemployment Benefits?

Western Europe and Obama believe infinity plus 1.


5 posted on 01/16/2012 3:14:52 PM PST by chuckee
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To: MichCapCon

“Michigan recently reduced the number of weeks someone can claim state unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 20 weeks”

For a few years I have been saying this is going to start happening.

All the jerk-offs out there (like my ex-girlfriend) who’ve been scamming the system and using their unemployment as vacation money are ruining it for the rest of us who are - or might soon be - laid off.

Those slackers can go to hell.


6 posted on 01/16/2012 3:15:11 PM PST by Psycho_Bunny
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To: MichCapCon

“How Long Is Too Long For Unemployment Benefits?”

All the way until the day after the election.

If you think Obama won’t seek to extend at least through election day, and if you think the GOP won’t go right along with it, then I suggest you are out of touch with the new Entitlement America.


7 posted on 01/16/2012 3:19:13 PM PST by RFEngineer
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To: MichCapCon

“But there are a lot of people who adjusted their lifestyle to survive on this benefit”

Probably some. Probably a lot simply take the benefit, and work under the table.

I know people who would not take a temporary job because it would disrupt their unemployment checks - they want to work under the table, or not at all.


8 posted on 01/16/2012 3:22:32 PM PST by RFEngineer
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To: MichCapCon

I suggest we look at Denmark’s idea. They give full benefits for six months, then they start to cut them. It’s a bit of a hint that you are expected to be finding a job.


9 posted on 01/16/2012 3:25:56 PM PST by proxy_user
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To: MichCapCon
In order to work, there must be jobs available. For jobs to be available, the overall economy must be in the hiring mode. In order for the economy to move into a hiring mode, the current regime and the stain leading it must be removed.

Without jobs, there is no paycheck.

Without a paycheck, there are no food purchases, house/rent payments, gasoline purchases, clothing purchases, etc., etc., etc.

So....how does the unit/family survive economically if there are no jobs????

10 posted on 01/16/2012 3:30:03 PM PST by Logic n' Reason (N/A)
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To: MichCapCon

Fourteen weeks. If a person cannot find a job in three months—not the job he or she may want—but a job to put bread on the table, he or she is not looking very hard.


11 posted on 01/16/2012 3:31:23 PM PST by MIchaelTArchangel (Romney ruined Massachusetts. Now he wants to ruin the nation.)
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To: MichCapCon

A few more years like the last few and we probably won’t have to worry about it.


12 posted on 01/16/2012 3:34:34 PM PST by Leep
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To: MichCapCon

The names of people drawing unemployment benefits should be published. The names of people drawing social security disability should be published. The names of single parents on welfare should be published. Working people have a right to know who and what they are paying for.


13 posted on 01/16/2012 3:48:01 PM PST by abclily
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To: MichCapCon

I am proud to say that I have never drawn unemployment even once in spite of being employed numerous times (IT Programmer - lost $50k+ investment as well). I had savings and I LOOKED for work.

There is another aspect to this although maybe somebody has already said it in these postings. Unemployment is a state-specific issue and tends to anchor workers to their original locality. Thus (hypothetical) Wisconsin auto workers are disinclined to retrain for the Dakota oil fields.

Remember the Okies of the 1930s dust bowl? They are famous for overloading their cars and heading for California’s gold! Moving to where the work is - a hard thing and it frequently split families - but for the nation’s economic health, better than a permanent dole!


14 posted on 01/16/2012 3:58:28 PM PST by SES1066 (Government is NOT the reason for my existance!)
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To: MichCapCon
Owens argues that unemployment benefits are now becoming an entitlement program.

You're absolutely eight Mr. Owens. Unemployement benefits, the new Welfare.

IMHO, six months should be plenty. A random drug test to receive benefits should be mandatory.

15 posted on 01/16/2012 4:01:45 PM PST by upchuck (Let's have the Revolution NOW before we get dumbed down to the point that we can't.)
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To: MichCapCon

You can’t always judge people who are unemployed. Sure, some people will abuse the system, but you can’t make generalizations about people. I’ve been unemployed for over a year now. I’ve been working over 25 years. My profession is saturated in this area, and the salaries have dropped dramatically. I’ve probably send over 100 resumes and have expanded my search parameters to include commutes over 90 minutes each way. In all this time, I’ve only gotten called in for 2 actual interviews. One place called to schedule an interview, then called the next day to cancel. They never rescheduled my interview. Nobody even bothers to acknowledge that they received your resume. I’m fortunate that I’ve managed to save some money over the years, because unemployment compensation barely equals 40% of my previous salary. You can call it a sense of entitlement, but I paid into the system all these years and have no qualms about accessing money that is intended for this purpose.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I may need to train for a completely different career, even at half the salary level. I used to love my profession, but the greed and the level of back-stabbing is overwhelming.


16 posted on 01/16/2012 4:30:55 PM PST by toothfairy86
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When I was in my early 20’s, my first job after college was in the aerospace industry in Seattle. Cutbacks caused me to be laid off, so 4 hours after I got laid off, everything I owned was in my jeep and I was 4 wheeling back to Reno. I got unemployment from the state of Washington. It was April, me and my friends were all still young. So I spent the whole summer hiking, 4 wheeling, and bar hopping. For extra money worked under the table from time to time. Eventually, the summer ended, and Washington was done sending me checks. On the same day I got my last check, I started my new job (that I have now been with for 20 years).

If they had stopped sending me checks earlier, I would have gotten a job earlier. However, at that point in my life, I owned only what fit in my jeep, and had no other responsibilities, and neither did any of my friends. Today, it would be impossible to just take a half year off, plus nobody would be around to enjoy it with me anyway. But the point is...when the money stopped, I got a job immediately.


17 posted on 01/16/2012 4:46:37 PM PST by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ...In the US the number is 54%)
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To: dsrtsage
"So I spent the whole summer… bar hopping. For extra money worked under the table from time to time."

I'll assume the work wasn't under bar tables…

18 posted on 01/16/2012 5:34:30 PM PST by bksanders (Taglines - BOGO@www.tagme.com)
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To: upchuck
Oh it's more than an entitlement, it's an outright Cloward Piven strategy.

BTW: I like the Denmark example, play it out in 16 weeks.
Drug testing and worker retraining, ala Newt.

19 posted on 01/16/2012 5:41:06 PM PST by bksanders (Taglines - BOGO@www.tagme.com)
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To: MichCapCon

One year is too long two is obscene.


20 posted on 01/16/2012 10:02:58 PM PST by chris_bdba
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