Up to 1,400 Whatcom County residents will have their unemployment benefits shut off as a result of a federal program coming to an end on Saturday, Dec. 29.
The Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, activated in July 2008, is scheduled to end later this month in Washington, impacting up to 60,000 state residents as well as other out-of-work people across the U.S.
Washington’s Employment Security Department is contacting out-of-work residents impacted by this change, said Sheryl Hutchinson, communications director for the agency.
“We are reaching out to those being impacted not just to let them know about the loss of benefits, but to also let them know about the resources at WorkSource (an agency that helps people find work),” said Hutchinson.
The ending of the federal program will reduce the maximum number of weeks for benefits from 37 weeks to 26 weeks. During much of the recession, most unemployed workers could qualify for up to 99 weeks of benefits. The emergency unemployment compensation program that supplied the extra weeks ended in April because of the state’s improved unemployment rate.
It is possible Congress could decide to extend the EUC program, which it has 10 times in the past four years, but there is no indication that will happen, Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson said the group of long-term unemployed workers has shrunk as the economy has improved and some have dropped out as benefits ended, but it’s still a substantial number losing benefits at the end of the year. Of particular concern to the ESD is that statistics indicate 70 percent of those who lose unemployment benefits still haven’t found work six months later, she said.
Since July 2008, the EUC program paid more than $5.6 billion in unemployment benefits to 407,000 jobless workers in Washington.
WorkSource will continue to offer a variety of workshops, skill assessments online courses, job counseling and other services to those seeking work. Details about WorkSource can be found at worksourcenorthwest.com.
That’s great. So for those of us at the tail end of the recession’s lay offs, we will now only get about 6 months of benefits (which means I have a month left). While those that came long before us got TWO YEARS of benefits. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure a percentage of those folks really needed that much time to find work.
Was there nobody smart enough involved in this process to think that maybe TWO YEARS was way TOO LONG, and that six months might be WAY TOO LITTLE (based on mathematical calculations)? And that some thought should have been given to making the payouts more balanced over the long haul?
A lot of us here in Whatcom County have very little chance of finding family wage jobs in six months at the current state of affairs locally and nationally (especially with the pathetic gridlock by the selfish, self-serving children running Congress). But maybe if the max had been a year, many off us recently laid off would still have a fighting chance of finding work before we run out of money to support our households.
I love WorkSource, but they can only do so much if there are not jobs in our fields. Maybe they can find some funding and they could also start helping with real estate liquidations. Sounds like many of us will be left out in the cold pretty quick, with no choice but to sell off assets quickly and at the worst time of year (at a loss) or give up and just walk away.
We didn’t deserve this. And the fat cats that brought this upon our nation, will have a Merry Freakin Christmas with caviar and champagne, when they should be spending it (and many more) in prison instead, with their assets being liquidated to pay for more unemployment payments or paying down the national debt.