Unemployed running out of payments before finding work; 99ers wait for help

A report by the United States Census Bureau found that this nations’ unemployment crisis has left so many people out of work for so long that most of America's unemployed are no longer receiving unemployment benefits.

 

 

This is not a new fact for a group of estimated 7 million unemployed job seekers, the 99ers. Not to be confused with the 99% who are taking part in the Occupy Protests nationwide; the 99ers are people who received between 73-99 weeks of federal extended unemployment benefits and have been exhausted from jobless payments since April 2010.

 

Many of the original unemployed job seeking 99ers are still without income and lack employment. A bill introduced by Rep’s Barbara Lee(D-CA) and Bobby Scott (D-VA) February 2011 to extend 14 weeks of emergency unemployment payments to the 99ers, HR-589 has been frozen within the House Ways and Means Committee for nine months. Its’ doubtful in the House with Speaker John Bohener (R-OH) and the Republicans majority in the chamber will allow Rep. Lee and Scott’s bill to ever reach the floor for a vote.

 

The drop in job seekers receiving unemployment benefits checks have fell dramatically since last year when 75% of unemployed individuals were receiving checks. The figure now 48%, clearly cites a long known but severely unaddressed problem of Americans experiencing long-term unemployment crisis, first-hand. Nearly one-third of America's 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more and another 6 million have been jobless for two years.

 

The longest term jobless - an estimated 7 million 99ers - have been without a work for nearly three years and without any form income for over a year & one-half. 

 

 

One of most heavily impacted states includes Michigan, where the jobless crisis has impacted some  former workers since December 2006. Michigan's unemployment rate of 11.1% or over 568,000 people receiving jobless benefits leaves out nearly another 1 million Michiganders 99ers whose benefits are exhausted. 

 

Michigan, under the leadership of Gov. Rick Snyder (R) and the Republican controlled House and Senate in April 2011 was the first state in the nation to reduce weeks of state unemployment weeks claims from 26 to 20.

 

The Census Bureau report says unemployment benefits kept 3.2 million people from slipping into poverty last year with the metric of the “poverty line” defining an annual income below $22,314 for a family of four.

 

So where do some long-term unemployed individuals go when jobless benefits are exhausted? To state and federally funded programs including food stamps and Social Security Disability. 

 

Nearly 46 million people received food stamps in August, a record total. Applications for the disability insurance program have jumped about 50 percent since 2007, ironically one year to the date when Michigan’s unemployment began in 2006.

 

In Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed two separate bills over the pass year that removed an estimated 41K families from state cash assistance programs and mandates Michigan Department of Human Services to apply a strict $5000 asset test to those seeking food stamps/bridge card assistance benefits.