With Florida’s unemployment rate at 12 percent, those receiving jobless benefits may soon receive less and have to do more to get that, while the amount that businesses and the government spend on benefits would be reduced.
The state House and Senate are considering bills that would give more power to businesses fighting whether workers are eligible for compensation in the first place, then reduce the number of weeks the unemployed can receive benefits, require them to prove they are looking for work and make them take jobs paying far less than they were making before.
Gov. Rick Scott, who will release his budget proposal today in the Central Florida town of Eustis, is expected to offer a jobless-benefits plan that is more drastic than the legislature’s. Among the changes Scott’s transition team recommended are requiring drug testing for applicants and requiring them to perform community service or other jobs to receive benefits.
“What it really does is it casts jobless workers in Florida as shiftless, lazy drug addicts,” said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the Washington-based National Employment Law Project. “It’s blaming the victim.”
Sen. Nancy Detert insists her bill, which would require laid-off workers to have a skills assessment before they can receive benefits and then to prove they are looking for a job, would get them back to work more quickly.
“We have to do more to help people get off unemployment quicker, because after a couple of months you’re going to be too depressed to go out there and look,” said Detert, R-Venice. “It’s not like we’re dying to kick people when they’re down. This is costing millions and millions and we’re not even really helping anybody.”
The proposal (SB 728) also would cut how long they can receive benefits from 26 weeks to 20 weeks. In the first 12 weeks of that period, those receiving benefits would be required to take any job paying at least 80 percent of their last salary, and in the last eight weeks they would have to take any job that pays at least as much as their unemployment compensation.
More here
The state House and Senate are considering bills that would give more power to businesses fighting whether workers are eligible for compensation in the first place, then reduce the number of weeks the unemployed can receive benefits, require them to prove they are looking for work and make them take jobs paying far less than they were making before.
Gov. Rick Scott, who will release his budget proposal today in the Central Florida town of Eustis, is expected to offer a jobless-benefits plan that is more drastic than the legislature’s. Among the changes Scott’s transition team recommended are requiring drug testing for applicants and requiring them to perform community service or other jobs to receive benefits.
“What it really does is it casts jobless workers in Florida as shiftless, lazy drug addicts,” said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the Washington-based National Employment Law Project. “It’s blaming the victim.”
Sen. Nancy Detert insists her bill, which would require laid-off workers to have a skills assessment before they can receive benefits and then to prove they are looking for a job, would get them back to work more quickly.
“We have to do more to help people get off unemployment quicker, because after a couple of months you’re going to be too depressed to go out there and look,” said Detert, R-Venice. “It’s not like we’re dying to kick people when they’re down. This is costing millions and millions and we’re not even really helping anybody.”
The proposal (SB 728) also would cut how long they can receive benefits from 26 weeks to 20 weeks. In the first 12 weeks of that period, those receiving benefits would be required to take any job paying at least 80 percent of their last salary, and in the last eight weeks they would have to take any job that pays at least as much as their unemployment compensation.
More here
1 comment:
They'll bailout the banks and companies--so they might as well bailout the unemployed -- is one rationale. They should cut the scam already.
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