State workforce agencies are gearing up for a new set of federally-mandated rules that impose tighter controls on the long-term unemployed seeking extended jobless benefits.
The key provision in the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act enacted earlier this year by Congress requires that jobless workers consult face-to-face with state job counselors upon reaching 26 weeks of unemployment.
The unemployed become eligible for extended, supplemental benefits at the six-month point.
Maurice Emsellem, the policy co-director of the National Employment Law Project in Oakland, Calif., says the interview requirement is a positive step for the 5.4 million Americans who’ve been out of work six months or longer.
He points out that the system, as currently structured, subjects the unemployed to conversations online and by telephone with “anonymous” state job counselors.
“And in person contact is what a lot of people need at that stage of the process,” said Emsellem.
Additional rules call on the unemployed to maintain a record of the effort to find a new job that includes the names of potential employers and the means by which they were contacted.
Another requirement asks the extended jobless to document their efforts to upgrade job skills.
The Illinois Department of Employment Security last week asked eligible workers to complete the paperwork prior to meeting with personnel in the state’s 26 “workNet” centers.
Those that don’t fill out the paperwork and participate in the interview “risk losing their benefits,” said Greg Rivara, the department spokesman.
Rivara said the agency expects up to 8,000 state residents to visit the centers over the first weeks the new rules are in effect.
Illinois does not plan to add personnel to handle the additional duties required of the new regulations.
With about 75,000 workers receiving long-term unemployment, Missouri didn’t say whether it would need more people to staff the state’s Career Centers.
Jobless workers already are required to report in person at Career Centers every four weeks, though the state didn’t explain how that visit differs from the new requirement.
“The new requirements by the federal government continue on this path, and we are working to ensure any additional federal requirements will be met,” Missouri Labor Department spokeswoman Amy Susan wrote in an email late Friday.
Emsellem’s biggest concern is that states won’t fulfill their end of a program that provides them with a financial incentive.
The federal government will deposit an $85 federal stipend in state treasuries for each displaced worker that meets the new requirements.
“We want to make sure the (states) put (the enhanced rules ) to good use by providing services and not just take the money,” Emsellem said.
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