Sequestration—the automatic spending cuts that kicked in this month—is a double-whammy for the long-term unemployed. It takes money out of their pockets directly by cutting their federal emergency unemployment insurance benefits, but it also makes it harder for them to find a job by weakening the economy. Also, in many states unemployed individuals are not eligible for Food Stamps while they collect UI Benefits. This puts them further and further in need.
Please sign and share this petition to Congress to repeal the cuts to unemployment benefits immediately and give people the time to find meaningful employment.
In the typical state, people who lose their job through no fault of their own may receive up to 26 weeks of unemployment compensation while they look for work. Long-term unemployment is therefore generally considered to be unemployment lasting 27 weeks or longer. The federal government has created a temporary federal emergency unemployment insurance program to provide additional weeks of unemployment compensation in every major recession since the 1950s. Sequestration affects the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program created in mid-2008; it does not affect regular state unemployment insurance benefits.
About 2 million people now receive an average benefit of $300 a week through unemployment. Over the remainder of the year, some of them will find work or run out of benefits and others now receiving regular state unemployment insurance benefits will transition to federal benefits. If the sequester runs for the whole year, an estimated 3.8 million workers would be affected.
The cuts don't make sense given that for the past 20 years our social safety-net has been shrinking not expanding causing more and more people to end up homeless while trying to find a non-existent job.
