An agreement reached by the United States Congress to avert the “fiscal cliff” may have saved tens of thousands of Hoosiers from losing their federal unemployment insurance benefits.
The Jan. 3 agreement extended insurance benefits through Dec. 31 at an estimated cost of $30 billion.
“If Congress would’ve waited another few days, another week or whatever, folks wouldn’t have had payments for a week,” Joe Frank, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, said.
He added that the repercussions of Congress not making an agreement at all would have been lost federal unemployment benefits for more than 30,000 Hoosiers.
The extension comes as the United States faces the largest deficit in its history and a new class of members of Congress, whom many believe will be keen to make wide cuts in an effort to improve the country’s financial situation during the next session of Congress.
Still, in Indiana at least, unemployment is considerably lower than it was last year.
“This same time last year, there were 103,000 more people collecting unemployment insurance benefits, so it’s steadily going down,” Frank said.
A person on unemployment is first paid by the state for a maximum of six months, then federally funded unemployment insurance kicks in for a period of up to 37 weeks.
In total, unemployment insurance from the state and federal government could cover a person experiencing joblessness for up to 15 months.
A report from the DWD released Dec. 21, 2012, stated that Indiana’s unemployment rate in November 2012 was at 8%, slightly above the national average of 7.8% but better than all surrounding states, excluding Ohio.
Those currently receiving unemployment insurance benefits are encouraged to check their UpLink homepage often to monitor their accounts.
Originally published in Ellettsville Journal, 2013. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.