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New York State Extends Unemployment Benefits By 13 Weeks

Update – Feb 7, 2011 – Legislation to add extra weeks for 99ers

Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee (Calif.) and Bobby Scott (Va.) are reintroducing legislation this week to provide additional weeks of unemployment insurance benefits for “99ers,”

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On May 12, the Senate finance committee voted and unanimously approved changes to legislation which will extend benefits to unemployed New Yorkers. There are approximately 120,000 unemployed people in New York currently receiving benefits which will run out before the end of May. These changes will extend the benefits by 13 weeks which result in a total of 72 weeks.

New York was given $645 million in federal stimulus package money to spend on unemployment benefits and administration – so far New York along with several other states has been very slow to institute changes to accomodate the federal aid. The main delay in New York was a desire to change the whole unemployment system to increase the maximum weekly benefit (currently $430) which is the lowest in the area.

These changes have not been finalized yet since the legislation now has to go the Senate floor for a full vote. Once it is passed by the legislature it has to be approved by Governor Paterson. It is expected that this will take place by the end of next week so that there will be no disruption in any unemployment insurance benefits.

Here is a quote from Senator Onorato who sponsored the bill:

“I could not be more pleased that this vital legislation, which will provide an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits for New York’s jobless, is now moving swiftly towards becoming law,” said Senator Onorato. “Unemployment benefits for some 56,000 jobless New York residents are slated to begin running out next week, with at least 5,000 more a week after that. Passage of this legislation will provide unemployed New Yorkers with critically needed financial assistance during very difficult economic times. This is a win-win for unemployed workers in need of aid, as well as for local economies that will benefit from the money these New Yorkers will spend on food, rent and other basic needs in their communities.”

192 replies on “New York State Extends Unemployment Benefits By 13 Weeks”

From NYSDOL Facebook page 5/31/2012
As a reminder (as we posted on May 18) — the maximum number of weeks of unemployment insurance benefits available in New York will fall from 93 weeks to 79 weeks starting in June. This is due to a combination of the end of the Extended Benefits (EB) program and New York triggering back on to Tier 4 of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program (EUC). Based on the circumstances of your individual claim, these changes could affect you.
EB ends for everyone the week ending 6/3/12. However, most people will now be eligible for Tier 4 of EUC and will receive a letter in the mail about this. EUC Tier 4 provides a maximum of 6 weeks of benefits.
Information is posted on our website at http://labor.ny.gov/ui/?claimantinfo/?ExtendedBenefits.shtm. Our Unemployment Insurance Calculator is updated to reflect the change in benefits. Check it out at http://labor.ny.gov/ui/?claimantinfo/?UIBenefitsCalculator.shtm.
If you need specific information regarding your claim, please call our Telephone Claim Center at 1-888-209-8124 (from within NYS) or 1-877-358-5306 (from outside NYS).

Hi Everyone!

Good to see a new post. Thanks for keeping the NY folks informed CatD….how’s your new job going?

Issa, Sherri, Paul, Alan…..where are you guys/gals? It’s time to check in!

All is well with me. Working part-time & still do side jobs. I’m making it just fine & still able to take my son to & from school & be with him after school. It’s SO important to me to have this time with him. He’s a great kid & an awesome student!

I haven’t posted here for some time, I am “LOST.”

Please take some time and pray for me and all who are “LOST.”

WALKING and WALKING…..

I have prayed and continue to pray for all here.

BE BLESSED…..

NEW YORKER.

Hello Issa, hope you’re doing well and taking some “me” time everyday to do the things you love and being happy even it’s not easy ?

8/31/2012
So sorry NEW YORKER….seek out any family or friends that may be able to help, churches, salvation army…

Stay strong…

8/31/2012
Issa checking in!
Chemo is over and I’m getting stronger every day.
My son is home. Life is good.

9/3/2012

YAY ISSA!! So good to see your post. I’m so happy your chemo is done & you’re getting stronger. You WILL get stronger every day – you are one strong, courageous woman. I know you’re happy that your son is home. It’s always nice to have family home. Smiles to you always 🙂

9/4/2012 – Happy LABOR Day

First of all, I would like to thank Mike for creating this Forum for us when we really needed it for information, and for some, to give moral support to one another. Miss you guys very much and am sad to read some of what I’ve just read – Am glad for those who are managing to hang in there still – like CatD, ALAN, and Mark in FL. To Pauline, one of the first originals and sweetest people I cyber-chatted with here on this forum, I hope you are hanging tough and hopefully working. 🙂 To Issa, am really glad to read your last post – I’d never known that you were facing such a greater battle than just finding a job, and I’m glad to read that you’re getting stronger and hope you continue to get stronger and stay healthy! I sincerely hope Sherry is out there somewhere and hope she is okay! Am very worried about her as well since it’s been so long since we’ve heard from her. To NEW YORKER, who I think I might relate to the most here, I’m so sorry for what you write has happened. As hard as it is to believe, I have been in court hearings for nearly two years trying to hang on to my apartment. Only due to technicalities due to a very unique situation, have I been able to delay what I expect to happen whenever it happens. I’ve been so fortunate to have been helped by friends, charities, social services and people I’ve become very close with via the Internet(I know it’s hard to believe, but have met people over the Internet who have become better friends than some who I’ve been friends with for much of my life who have disappeared). Not just with monetary help, but emotional support, as the situation I fell into has caused me to become mentally and physically ill. I know there might be some Libertarians or Teabaggers reading here who will have something to say about what I am about to write. During the time I collected the 99 weeks of UI, I couldn’t even look for, nor accept a job even if I had it handed to me on a silver platter. First, I watched my father die from cancer, and shortly thereafter, cared for my mother for two years, and to keep her out of a Nursing Home, required nearly 24/7 of my time. I had gotten calls for interviews and calls for actual jobs that said start tomorrow, even when there were so few jobs hiring. I couldn’t leave my Mom alone to fall on the floor. If I had been working, I probably wouldn’t have quit, but as I was already out of work, there was no way I could leave my Mom alone or have her end her life in a Nursing Home in NYC. I have a brother, who believes in the Healthcare Plan that the Conservative Teabagger bastards in Congress believe in which, to quote the great former and hopefully soon to be again Congressman Alan Grayson, “Don’t get sick, and if you do….Die Quickley!!” So he had no time to help with HIS mother, or to allow me time to try and get my own life in order. So, you Libertarian/Teabaggers or anyone else who may think I didn’t deserve UI because I couldn’t accept a job can go screw your selfish, soul-less hypocritical selves! And don’t tell me that ALL or even the majority of people on Social Services are gaming the system, because it’s nearly impossible to survive with ZERO savings, while receiving $200/mo of food assistance, $215(the maximum for a single person in NYS) which goes directly to the landlord per month(though the rent is MUCH higher), and I’ve not been able to pay anything from my own pocket for two years, despite also receiving very small stipends to buy non-food items which I never have enough of no matter what, without extra help from other sources. My Internet bill has been paid by miracle donors for the past two years!! I live like a prisoner on death row, never knowing when the final day will come when I will have to go to a shelter or the street, and/or when the Marshall will come to the door with some more papers. When my Mom died in September, 2010, my Conservative Rush Limpnuts loving brother made off with the little money my mother had left. He was holding some in his bank, and I was holding what began as an equal portion in my bank, and my Mom had a couple of thousand in her own bank. The money my brother was holding was supposed to be for in case my mother HAD to go to a Nursing Home, and although she was getting Medicaid, that would not pay the entire bill. The money I was holding for my mother was what was spent for my mother while she was sick for the two years. When my Mom died, my brother kept the money he was holding of hers, along with withdrawing the balance from my Mom’s own account which had a couple of thousand in it, but there was no written will – just a verbal agreement that since I was taking care of her, and not able to accept jobs or go on interviews, that I would get that modest amount of money, so I would then be able to finally go on interviews or accept a job, since I would then finally have the time to do so. So, by the time my Mom died, not only was I in terrible grief, but also left with none of my own savings, since the last UI payment was in March, 2010, and I had been paying whatever bills with the UI money, and buying food, and trying to keep the car I had. I haven’t been able to pay a bill since March, 2010 which was when the 99 weeks of UI ended for most of us. I have learned to live without television, because everything that was on cable can be seen on the Internet, including all the news shows, all sporting events, movies, and nearly every cable channel. If that extension which was proposed by Debbie Stabenow had not been blocked by the GOP/Tea Party, which would have provided 20 extra weeks of UI benefits, while giving tax breaks to businesses who hired the longest termed unemployed, I might have had a chance to work and pay the extra hours for a health care aid for my mother who did not quite have 8 hours of care, and there was no guarantee that the aide would show up on time every day – I don’t think an employer would have hired someone who would have to take off at any given time if an aide didn’t show up on time for their mother. Besides, even with a home health aide, I needed to be there to do first aid on a daily basis, as a home health aide was not allowed to do that work. Only a visiting Nurse could, but they would only come once or twice a week, and bandages and dressings for wounds had to be changed every day by me. Caring for my Mom was a more difficult job than any paying job I’ve ever had, but since I did it out of unconditional love, and because she was always there for me, it was the most rewarding JOB I ever had. I believe by being able to stay in her own home, my Mom’s will to live was stronger than it would have been if I wasn’t there and she was sent to a sleazy-ass Nursing Home where the elderly are treated like animals, for the most part. The backrent is so high that it would take more than a miracle to not end up in the situation that NEW YORKER finds himself in now. So, my friends, I hope you don’t mind reading and that I’ve shared my story with you all. You may pass judgments if you like, but that’s okay. I still worked my whole life, and lost my last job through no fault of my own. I’m sure the person who used to give me high blood pressure every morning when I’d read his ten Ron Paul posts in a row is reading and thinking that I shouldn’t have been allowed to receive UI because I was unable to take a job. To that “thing” who was banished from this forum, I also stand by what I said a long time ago. IT was obviously a troll – writing on a 99er extension forum, while preaching Libertarian BS, as they believe that UI, SS, Medicare, Medicaid, and all other Social Programs are Unconstitutional – except when they need it!! They believe in laying off public workers like firefighters, unless it’s their home that’s burning down. I think most who’ve come to this forum would agree that although the President surely wasn’t perfect, we know that for him to have had ANY bill pass was a major accomplishment, given that the goal of the GOP/TP was to let the economy go in the tank at the expense of millions of Americans, just so the President might fail and then THEY who got us into the mess could take back control of The White House and go back to those same failed policies. I am angry at many things, but I understand that the President had to compromise more during the first term, since he knew he would need more than just Democratic voters to win re-election. If given a second term, I don’t think there will be the same kind of compromising we saw during the first term, and I truly believe that he will continue to try and finish the job that he started. I never thought this country could be fixed in just four years or even 8, after where we were at when GW was finally out of the picture – after leaving us with 8 million or more lost jobs, and turning a surplus left by Bill Clinton into trillions of dollars in deficit. Where was the Republican outrage about the Bush spending spree on two unfunded wars, The Bush Tax Cuts, which didn’t create any jobs in THIS country, but did reward companies who sent jobs overseas, and of course Medicare Part D, which was unpaid for. No, there was no concern for the deficit then, but when it comes to trying to help the people who fell into poverty due to mainly Republican trickle down economics, this new breed of Republicans want to blame poor people for the deficit, and charge them for the bill, while continuing to give tax breaks for the so-called “Job Creators.” If Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan manage to steal this election, I see a much gloomier picture for future generations, many of whom have bought into the GOP/Teabagger outright LIES. Good luck friends, and NEW YORKER, perhaps we will one day meet out there somewhere…..Not sure I look forward to the future, but I do hope that somehow YOU might have a better chance than I. Peace to all, and I hope all those who can, will vote, and not vote against their own self-interests. Remember what happened in November, 2010. Not a good outcome for any regular people. Remember The Future! http://kurteichenwald.com/2012/09/the-five-reasons-why-romneyryan-must-be-defeated-in-2012-and-why-conservatives-should-hope-they-are/

Hi, everyone. Glad some old friends are still checking in.
The next generation joins the unemployed here. My son had to leave his job at the university when he graduated. He has now applied for unemployment. Hopefully, he’ll find a good job soon. Meanwhile, it’s really good to have him home!

I hope we’re all working to get Obama reelected. If Romney gets in, us 47 percenters will be in even worse shape. We’re going to have to fight just to stand still and not slip down even further.

Monday, October 22, 2012.

“Trying” – “Fighting” – “EXHAUSTED”!!!

Praying to “GOD” to have mercy on me and end my homelesness.

I have never been tried like I am being tried now.

Thank you “Paul Davies” and all…..

May You All Be Blessed.

NEW YORKER.

MIKE: Please read.
NEW YORKER: It’s good to hear from you! but a bummer you’re homeless. I don’t know what to say except you’re in my heart and prayers. The economy is slowly on the rise so keep hope. I wonder if we could get a New York reporter interested in your journey, as recorded on this blog. Mike may have a way to send you copies of all your posts. If not, maybe you could cut and paste them and send them to newspaper and blog reporters. Good luck.

If anyone has a way of sending this post to NEW YORKER, please do so. Thanks.

Hello to all, I’m a 99er from way back when this site was started i didn’t use the name George that much. This site was a god send helping all of us pulling together trying to extended the 13 weeks. i have not found any work that i could do because of arthritis hip replacement and knee replacement Ive been home taking care of my 13 and 16 year old girls. Thank god my wife is working as a Nurse at state Pych Hosp.she was beaten up 3 times in the past 6 months.Taken out in ambulance. I read all of post my heart goes out to all and prayers!!All we can do is hang in there and pray and hope we catch a break.Thank you all for your inspiration.

Hello everyone, happy new year. Issa glad ur feeling better. Thanks Paul Davies ur very sweet 2… thanks for all ur support and kindness…. hope ur doing well would be nice hearing from u… yes thanks to MIke we had a place like this. Wishing everyone well and good health really is one’s wealth.

(March 17, 2013) – Happy St. Patrick’s Day, for whatever it’s worth – Hi whoever still visits! I hope most of you all have found work or at least a way to survive. I’ve been so fortunate to have gotten help from people to still be able to even type this message. My thoughts are with NEW YORKER wherever you may be…..The only reason I’m still with roof is because of delays in the eviction process which are still pending as far as my apartment. Every day with a roof is a blessing, and I’ve learned to appreciate the smallest things in life. With absolutely NO money, one is forced to do so. Anyway, just checking in, and despite tremendous struggling, still try maintain a slight sense of humor. Here is Abbott and Costello’s take on “Loafing.” http://youtu.be/Q_TGQ7rGL-Q

Hi, Paul
I visit once in awhile to see if there is any news from our friends, and to say hi. Glad you’re still with a home. You still have people praying for you. I worry about NEW YORKER, too. The two of you were hanging on by your fingernails.

Hi, all
Happy spring.
Do any of you know the names of some really good employment agencies in New York City? My son has a master’s degree and would like to try finding a job in NYC. Thanks, and hope everone is well.

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