75,000 Floridians Could Lose Unemployment Benefits Dec. 28
Posted December 19, 2013 08:55 am
TALLAHASSEE, FL - A dark cloud is hanging over the heads of 75,000 Floridians this holiday season as they face the end of their emergency unemployment benefits on Dec. 28.
So far Congress hasn't voted to continue funding the
benefits and it's not likely to happen since House
members already are home for their holiday break.
Rich Templin, legislative and political director for the
Florida AFL-CIO, says the emergency unemployment benefit
- put in place in the beginning of the Great Recession
in 2008 - still is needed for thousands.
"It really is set up as a lifeline," he stresses. "It's
designed to keep people in their homes, to keep gas in
the car so that they can look for work. This is to keep
people alive until they can find employment."
The federal emergency benefits are intended too help
people who still can't find a job after state benefits
run out.
In the past year, Florida state lawmakers reduced weeks
of state benefits and added criteria that make it
difficult for Floridians to qualify.
Templin says currently only 20 percent of Floridians who
apply for state unemployment are qualifying.
Florida pays a maximum of 23 weeks, with an average
weekly benefit of $232 that's almost $80 less than the
national average.
Templin says the fact that the state's unemployment rate
has slightly decreased in recent months is misleading.
"What few understand is that the reason our unemployment
rate has been decreasing over the last several months,
it is not because we have created jobs and the
unemployed are getting back to work," he points out.
"It's because the unemployed have been out of work for
so long they are dropping off the rolls."
Since 2008, 1.5 million people in Florida have received
the federal emergency unemployment benefits.
If the benefits are extended when Congress resumes in
January, an estimated 10,000 jobs would be saved,
according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Photos/graphics and links added by the Observer