'99ers' dread future without jobless benefits (those who have exhausted 99 wks of unemployment)

[Liberal_in_LA]

'99ers' dread future without jobless benefits

They've exhausted 99 weeks of unemployment checks. Thousands are banding together to lobby Congress for another extension.

Karl Schafer says he has tried for hundreds of jobs since he was laid off from a truck factory more than two years ago. Still waiting to get hired, the 52-year-old Ohio man has suffered the indignity of applying for food stamps and asking his elderly mother for help.

Weary of her own job search, former customer service representative Wagma Omar, 40, of Mission Viejo is thinking about applying for a dangerous civilian job in Afghanistan.

And in California's wine country, Kay Stephens, 56, is frantically looking to cut her living expenses so her unemployment doesn't become a burden to her 30-year-old daughter.

Schafer, Omar and Stephens are among the increasing number of unemployed Americans whose burdens just got heavier: They've exhausted their 99 weeks of jobless benefits and must now figure out how to get by on ever more meager resources.

In California, state officials estimate there are nearly 100,000 people who are still looking for work but can no longer draw an unemployment check. Federal labor officials could not provide a number nationally, but private-sector experts say it could easily top 1 million.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-0430-99ers-20100430,0,422725.story

"People are going off a cliff and we're not really doing anything about it," said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the National Employment Law Project. "That's not great public policy."

Once unemployment benefits run out, people are eligible for general relief — but that pays a maximum of $221 a month in Los Angeles County, compared with as much as nearly $2,000 a month for unemployment. Only workers with dependent children are eligible for welfare.

Worried that they could lose their homes and get put out on the street, thousands of "99ers," as they call themselves, are banding together to agitate for another extension. On Friday they're kicking off a "Mayday SOS" campaign, faxing and e-mailing Congress their resumes, along with pleas for more benefits.

"The have-nots are going to be in great multitudes, and they will uprise," said Donalee King, 51, of San Diego, who runs an Internet radio forum dedicated to the cause.

[jtuck004]

1. Oh, it goes way beyond them...

I don't have an approximate figure, but I caught just a little of this on NPR. They threw out a figure of 200 Billion dollars that would no longer go to these folks.

But who it won't go to are the utilities that pay employees, the insurance agent, the kids school lunches, the house payment, etc, and the sales taxes that feed state coffers.

Which will very likely lead to more unemployment, and more furoughs or layoffs of city and state jobs.

We need some investment in real job creation that creates wealth (not tax relief, and not friggin' health care jobs), cause this is just going to to add to the 20+ million people that are out of work.

[Lost4words]

6. thats the way it works nt

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

2. I have 2 friends in this exact situation

Their desperation and despair is heartbreaking.

[doc03]

3. I feel for the people that really need the benefits but

I also know many that are drawing SS, eligible for a pension but are milking all the unemployment they can claiming to search for work while their employer pension benefits are building up.

[tonysam]

4. Oh, bullshit.

You have to report pension payments when you file a claim. Besides, UI isn't welfare; you have to have worked to get benefits. Your post just REEKS of bullshit.

Try again with another bullshit post about people who are starving out here or are homeless by blaming the victim.

You couldn't care less how we unemployed feel.

[doc03]

5. In my state SS is not deductible from unemployment (check on it)

I didn't say they were getting a pension I said SS and unemployment. I had the choice take my company pension and retire or continue to "seek work" and draw SS and unemployment for another year while my employer pays into my pension plan. I took the pension I could not in good conscience draw unemployment while someone else really needs it and it ain't bullshit it is fact. Some of my fellow workers think I am stupid, they say I am going to ride out my unemployment as long as I can and will get a extra $100 on my pension when I retire. I would feel like I was taking food from someone elses family if I did that. Sorry I guess I am a chump.

[jtuck004]

10. ? So thousands of seniors conspired with Goldman Sachs to create CDO's

that would go South, and were silent partners on the long (losing)side of the transaction
so they could get $187.50 unemployment checks for 26 (or 99) weeks? My dog, those are some evil
seniors. And SMART!!

Or, perhaps they got laid off through no real fault of their own. Watched their 40k's
drop in value while some hedge fund manager gathered 4 billion dollars of profit
for himself. Looked around and saw that people who used to create wealth here had
decided to just piss on their country and moved that work offshore so they could
profit from financial deregulation and there were no jobs that would net them anything
after they paid for the gas and car to get back and forth. Realized that their social
security might not be enough to live on. So they took the scraps that the system was
giving them, hoping against hope that something would change a few months from now.

I don't doubt that there are a few people who, perhaps, could have turned away from money
they were entitled to by virtue of having worked for a company that used to make money
from their labor. But I would bet for every one of those there are hundreds who are just
scared and afraid not to collect what may be the last extra money beyond the pittance
they will get from Social Security. Especially in an economy where there are more than
23 million people unemployed, (pro baby more like 26 million), soon to be joined by a
few million (or several) more. Americans being who they are, I suspect that the vast majority
of those people would really prefer a job instead of just enough to get by.

[doc03]

14. I am not saying there aren't people that need unemployment

I am supporting them. I could have stayed on unemployment, recieved SS, Suplimentasl Unemployment Benifits and health insurance from my employer and knocked down over $4200 per month that's over $50000 a year. I was laid off myself for well over a year and when I was eligable for pension I took it I couldn't in good conscience continue to draw unemplyment while other people needed it. What do you do, back the people that are getting unemplyment that have no desire to find work and flame me.

[jtuck004]

15. "I bet you think this song is about you..." Carly sings...

My post was not about you. It's about the millions that are having their lives pulled out from under them, very likely permanently. Why not spend time railing about the manufacturers who used our tax money and government policies to move the means of production to other countries, or the change in policies which have increased the percentage of financial gains in our domestic product, which has had the net effect of concentrating trillions of dollars in the hands of a very few people. That alone is much more responsibile for the need for unemployment and the lack of real security in this country. Why spend any seconds thinking about a few people who may or may not really need the few million they get? The amount is so small as to be laughable, and for most of them it is only a temporary benefit in a world full of injustice. Where is the incentive for most people to work with the downward pressure on their wages and a really bleak future?

On the other hand you sound like you are doing fine.

[murdoch]

7. Cut off is at 26 weeks for many, not "99 weeks"

This is the typical junk in the papers. The idea that people are getting cut off at 99 weeks of unemployment.

It may be the case that there are people in the country who get up to 99 weeks of unemployment. But many people are getting their unemployment cut much short of that.

I know about New York mostly so lets have a look -

http://www.labor.state.ny.us/ui/claimantinfo/Breakdownofadditionalbenefits.shtm

*OC effective date Nov. 23, 2009 and later: 26 weeks of regular UI only

So someone laid off at the end of November 2009 gets their regular 26 weeks of unemployment until May or June, and then that is it. At a time where the standard U-3 unemployment rate is over 10% (and the U-4 through U-6 rates which measure unemployment more liberally are much higher).

While Wall Street gets bailed out with TARP despite all the monkeyshines Goldman Sachs etc. has been up to.

Then we have people even in here latch on to this "99 weeks" nonsense and talk about how we shouldn't have any more unemployment extensions. How are people laid off in late November of last year on unemployment for 99 weeks? As of today, they would have been laid off for 21 weeks or so.

Keep talking this 99 weeks nonsense and kill the unemployment extension bill with a Senate filibuster.

[tonysam]

8. There are a LOT of people who are 99ers.

Your issue is completely different than those like me who have been out of work for a couple of years.

Pushing the date back for eligibility for the various tiers is not "extension" of UI; the last real extension was in November, when the 20 weeks plus six in the high unemployment states were enacted.

Don't you dare belittle those of us who cannot find work after a couple of YEARS of being unemployed. Talking about the millions of us who ARE 99ers IS important because what Congress has been doing is NOT really extending UI.

Additional weeks of benefits is crucial for those of us facing total economic ruin. Merely pushing the eligibility date back doesn't go anywhere near far enough.

[doc03]

9. At present in Ohio you are eligible for a total of 79 weeks

unless there are further extensions. I know some people laid off back in 2008 that I am sure have received more than 79 weeks with their extensions.

[murdoch]

12. Belittling?

As I said before, I don't know about beyond New York. I don't know much about 99 weeks either.

My point is that people laid off in November 2009 will have their unemployment run out in June of this year if Congress does not extend unemployment. And unemployment is over 10%.

So if someone filibusters unemployment extension in the Senate, it is not just people unemployed 99 weeks who will be cut off, people unemployed for just 26 weeks will be cut off.

Whether people were unemployed 26 weeks or whether they were unemployed 99 weeks, both are going to be cut off if the extension bill is filibustered in the Senate. *You* will be no more or less special whatever the number of weeks you have. That is my point, which I think you have missed.

[unabelladonna]

11. insane

the jobs are never coming back, people are becoming desperate.
which is why in this case the government must create jobs. rebuild the infrastructure and you accomplish 2 things: jobs and a better quality of life for everyone.

[KamaAina]

13. Given that California is experiencing double-digit unemployment,

the San Francisco NFL team should consider changing its name to the "99ers". :eyes:

[jtuck004]

16. Now that's funny...