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2010-02-09

2010-01-19

Agriculture

Lifestyles

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 10:06 PM

Unemployment aid not for those unwilling to work

Safety net

Today’s double-digit jobless rate may have forced some people who never so much as considered asking for help to do so.

Obviously a lot of Kansans have their hands out requesting. More than 197,000 people are receiving unemployment benefits in the Sunflower State, but benefits aren’t paid to just anyone. Recipients must meet these criteria from Kansas law. The individual:

• Has made a claim for benefits.

• Has registered for work.

• Is able to work, available for work and is actively seeking work.

• Has been unemployed and has claimed a waiting period of one week that occurs within the benefit year.

• Has received wages from insured employment in two or more quarters of the base period and has total base period wages equaling at least 30 times the weekly benefit amount.

• Was not engaged in employment for excluded services, such as self-employment.

• Is not disqualified in accordance with provisions of the law.

The federal government recently extended the length of time people could receive jobless benefits from about 26 weeks to 40 weeks and even more in states with especially high unemployment rates. Kansas doesn’t fit the high unemployment criteria with its 6.9 percent jobless rate reported in September or Franklin and Anderson county’s 7.1 and 7.9 percent, respectively.

Employees dismissed without misconduct are eligible to receive benefits after a one-week waiting period. An employee who voluntarily quits without good cause attributable to the work or to the employer or an employee who was discharged for misconduct connected with the work may be disqualified from receiving benefits.

While some people may take unfair advantage of this system the majority, likely, aren’t on the dole by choice.

In Kansas, those receiving unemployment payments receive a minimum of $109 or a maximum of $436 for up to 26 weeks or until the 25 percent of funds earned in the quarterly base period are paid out. With an average wage of $884 per week in Johnson County — the state’s highest paid area — even the maximum weekly unemployment payment isn’t likely to be satisfactory for workers. Those unemployment payments, which are limited in scope, don’t appear out of mid-air instead they are paid by employers. Employers pay from 0 to more than 7 percent — generally 4 percent — of an employee’s wages to the state’s unemployment fund. Unemployment insurance rates are applied to the first $8,000 in wages paid annually to each employee. Those funds accrue and gain interest to pay future claims.

Payments aren’t paid to those unwilling to work or who have not worked.

The unemployment insurance system works as an effective system to aid employees during short-term periods of unemployment. It strikes the right balance of providing a social safety net without paying out so much that jobless individuals decide to stay on it without continuing to seek work.

— Jeanny Sharp,

editor and publisher