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Unemployed Get Their Money Back in North Carolina And Tennessee

Joblessness

First Posted: 06/ 7/11 02:41 PM ET Updated: 06/ 7/11 05:13 PM ET

Long-term unemployed people in North Carolina and Tennessee are getting their money back after local leaders reinstated a federal jobless aid program that expired in April.

In a surprise statement announcing an executive order that would unilaterally restore unemployment benefits for 47,000 jobless North Carolinians whose checks stopped because a political standoff, Gov. Bev Perdue (D) specifically cited an unemployed woman who'd been evicted after she'd been cut off.

"One woman called my office recently," Perdue said. "She has a background in accounting and has been looking for work for months. Because she lost her benefits she and her daughter can no longer stay in their apartment. They have nowhere to put their belongings so they will also lose everything that they can’t carry to the homeless shelter."

"Sadly, this story is not unique," Perdue continued. "The people I hear from say they can’t keep the lights on."

Now that the unemployment insurance is flowing again, two North Carolina residents told HuffPost they would not face eviction as they had previously feared.

"I just felt tears of joy, of gratitude. It’s finally over," said Sonia Street of Charlotte, N.C., describing the moment she saw news of Perdue's statement on Friday. Street said she'd received an eviction notice on her front door last month and that she and her three kids would get the heave-ho from her landlord if she couldn't make the rent by June 11. She said she lost her job as an accountant for a commercial property management company in July 2009.

When Street checked the balance on her unemployment debit card from the state's Employment Security Commission on Monday, she said, she found two payments totaling $2,700 -- the money she'd missed since April 16, when the federal Extended Benefits program expired. She's got another month and a half left, she said, and is hoping to have a job before her benefits run out for real.

Story continues below

(A spokesman for the ESC said anyone who hasn't received their missing EB payments should call the commission at (866) 795-8877.)

The Extended Benefits program pays the final 20 weeks of benefits for people who exhaust 79 weeks of combined state and federal aid without finding work. Nearly 30 states had to pass legislation that tweaked their laws in order to maintain their eligibility for Extended Benefits, since the program requires a state unemployment rate that is 110 percent higher than in either of the two previous years. Since unemployment rates haven't risen but have only barely fallen, in December the U.S. Congress said states could look back three years instead of two. In almost every state unemployment is still much worse today than three years ago.

In Tennessee, the legislature recently restored the benefits after they lapsed in April -- but unlike in North Carolina, lawmakers in Tennessee seemed unaware at first that they had to take action to keep the federal benefits in place. Republican leaders in the legislature blamed the outgoing administration of Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) for the goof, according to a local paper. The U.S. Department of Labor notified every state workforce agency about the possibility of losing the benefits. Apparently the message got lost in the transition.

Stephenie Dodson of Nashville told HuffPost on Tuesday that she had not yet received any retroactive payments for the checks she missed after April 16. "I haven’t heard a word from the state," Dodson said. Even though Dodson has started a part-time job for the summer, she should still be eligible for checks covering the weeks she was unemployed in April in May, according to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

"Letters will go out later this week pointing affected claimants to the internet application to update their certifications," a department spokesman told Huffpost. "Once they update their certifications, checks would be cut as early as that night. Those with some earnings would be instructed to certify by phone so that they could report earnings by each day (as opposed to each week)."

The EB lapse in North Carolina owed to a fight between Gov. Perdue and statehouse Republicans, who passed reauthorizations of the program with budget-cutting conditions attached, which Perdue refused to sign into law.

Like Street, Ali Braswell of Chapel Hill, N.C., said she'd have been evicted soon if lawmakers couldn't get past their disagreement. "I have very caring landlords," Braswell said, "but they can’t let me stay here without paying them."

Braswell said she's told her four kids, two of whom are in college, that she's trying to find work. "This is a situation," she said she explained. "Things are really tough, I'm praying, I'm looking for jobs –- I've shown them."

When she discovered she'd received payments totaling $3,336 on Monday, Braswell said it was "such a blessing, such a blessing." Braswell, 40, said she lost her job as a payroll coordinator in July 2009. She's only found part-time work at a University of North Carolina residence hall since then. She hopes she can find more work before the benefits end this summer.

"There’s still some hope I guess," Braswell said. "It's such a blessing to get this money but I only have about six weeks left. There aren’t going to be any more reprieves. Things are still dire."

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Long-term unemployed people in North Carolina and Tennessee are getting their money back after local leaders reinstated a federal jobless aid program that expired in April. In a surprise statement...
Long-term unemployed people in North Carolina and Tennessee are getting their money back after local leaders reinstated a federal jobless aid program that expired in April. In a surprise statement...
 
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BeautifulOnDaOutside
I ♥ Huffington Post
12 hours ago (2:05 PM)
Whose money?
12 hours ago (1:40 PM)
"Get their money back" you mean "get government welfare."

Put the ideology aside for *once* It's so IamE
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
pjones006
If I knew what I was doing, would I be here?
6 hours ago (7:42 PM)
You do know where the money comes from don't you?
5 hours ago (9:28 PM)
OOOH, it's a tax refund???

I thought democrats hated those!

Glad to see you want lower taxes! Now we're getting somewhere!
13 hours ago (1:25 PM)
Getting "their" money back? How about getting borrowed money that their kids will have to pay back in future taxes. The entire juvenile population in the U.S. should file a class action lawsuit against the baby-boom generation for destoying their future. (I'm a baby boomer.) We have utterly destroyed our kids futures with massive government deficit spending, promising everything to everybody. We defend most of the world, we don't want anybody to be responsibl­e for themselves­. Big brother wants to control, regulate, and tax everything­. We should be ashamed of ourselves.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
MiddleMolly
Working to better the USA!
6 hours ago (8:17 PM)
I take it that you supported the two unfunded wars and the Bush tax cuts. My sense is most of the people who supported the Repubs on those issues are pre-baby boomers.

So you are one of those who believes that it is better for the country to have people starving in the street and losing their homes to foreclosur­e than it is to assure that laid off working people have a pittance to help them to survive.

This is the legacy that you want to leave for your kids? A place in which you are down and out, in which, if you are unemployed­, if you are old, you are considered l@zy and worthless and encouraged to d/1 on the street? Is that really the kind of country you want to live in?

Wow. You have really been drinking the Right-wing Koolaid. Too bad.
3 hours ago (10:49 PM)
I want to leave a country to our children in which they are not enslaved by our massive deficit spending spree. We have sentenced our own children to perpetual servitude to the massive debt we have accumulate­d and which must be paid back. Their lives are going to be severely curtailed because we can't control our spending.
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HUFFPOST PUNDIT
jamaicalover
Team Obama
14 hours ago (12:26 PM)
Please pass along job info. http://www­.usps.com/­employment­/welcome.h­tm
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
MiddleMolly
Working to better the USA!
6 hours ago (8:26 PM)
Wow. That was really discouragi­ng! Most of the smaller states have at most 2 or 3 openings throughout the state. It seems as though, as a whole, there aren't more than 50 openings per state. There are exactly two openings in the city I live in.

But thanks for the links!
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NHGranite
Thank you. Thank you very much.
15 hours ago (11:19 AM)
"I know, let's get everybody to buy a house in the 90's. Let them buy everything under the sun on the equity line. One little change and they can't afford the house, we pick it up, collect the PMI and sell for a tidy profit. Now, just like with Carter, we manipulate markets so Republican­s can back into office after one term and keep on the path of destructio­n for profit. Damn Bill Clinton - he figured this out, and we had to impeach him. Obama's single term is looking good! Fixing oil prices after the spill, piece of cake. We'll run on JOBSJOBSJO­BS but actually do nothing to help the jobless. That should lower the minimum wage. Of course, we'll have to chase away the illegals we brought in if we can get executives to pick beans! Let's do it all again in another 10 years.
15 hours ago (11:18 AM)
They are getting "their" money back? Seriously?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
MiddleMolly
Working to better the USA!
6 hours ago (8:28 PM)
The money has been allocated to these particular states to be used for these particular people for this particular purpose. So, yes, it is "their" money.

Be glad that you don't need extended benefits because you are soooo superior to the people that do.
15 hours ago (10:41 AM)
truth is we can't pay for the unemployed forever. if the benefits lasted for 99 weeks then there would be some calling for more. when is enough enough? i feel bad for the unemployed but at some point we have to stop giving them money. this might be a depression and last for year and if so do we pay for the unemployed the entire time. years on unemployme­nt not working? what if the numbers go up to 10, 11, or as high as 25 percent like the last time?
Giopaps
Born Dutch, always Dutch
15 hours ago (10:47 AM)
Why can't we pay for the unemployed forever? We can pay for the war in Afghanista­n forever. We can extend the tax cut for the rich forever and we are subsidizin­g the riches oil companies in the world forever. Looks to me like it is a question where you put your money and we are definitely not putting enough money in creating jobs since our money goes to all of the above.
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NHGranite
Thank you. Thank you very much.
15 hours ago (11:21 AM)
So faved 'n fanned. Priorities­: profit over people.
15 hours ago (11:22 AM)
the above is who are making jobs. rich buy thing, tax cuts give them money to spend, it takes people to run oil companies, and people to fight a war and make the equipment the soldiers need. but on another note we should not subsidize any company or business sector. oil, coal, solar, or wind should succeed or fail on its own and the banks for that matter.
14 hours ago (12:22 PM)
We need the Unemployme­nt to be extended longer than the 99 weeks. i am an Analyst who lost my job July 2009. I went back to school got my degree (BA)and still looked for work and still nothing. It is not my fault for losing my Job as the co cut back- so when people who are still employed look at us - be careful you can still be right here in our shoes and see how it feels - I guarantee you feel diffrent and more sympatheti­c. Wake up people - we need the help- and the 30 million that is paid to fund the war(30 m a month) thats the money that can be allocated for the unemployme­nt extension for 99ers and regular claimnats,­I am so tired of the congress stalling! give us the benefits and work on the economy! Stop distractin­g us with lurid scandles and nonsense.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
MiddleMolly
Working to better the USA!
5 hours ago (8:36 PM)
The benefits do last for 99 weeks in most states. It's been like that for two years now. Where have you been?

And you won't stop giving the umemployed money. If more homes foreclose, your home is worth less. How many thousands of dollars have you already lost in your home because other people can't find jobs? If people don't get unemployme­nt, they will be getting food stamps, housing vouchers, low income energy assistance­. That comes out of your taxes. If they don't have health insurance, they will turn to emergency rooms and county clinics, costing you more money and causing your health insurance costs to go up.

Not only that, but it may cost you your job. When the unemployed stop spending money because they no longer have unemployme­nt benefits, the whole economy suffers even more than it already does.

So.. there is no free lunch when we have high unemployme­nt. You will pay one was or the other, as we are all in this together.

Unless you think it would be a good idea just to get rid of the unemployed­... just ship them off to some kind of .... camp somewhere?
3 hours ago (11:02 PM)
The unemployme­nt rate is not going to drop until big brother steps out of the way, reduces the regulatory strangleho­ld the have on business, and lowers, or better yet eliminates corporate income taxes. We have lost millions of manufactur­ing jobs because big brother can't stay out of the free market.
Demidan
Whiskey you're the Devil
16 hours ago (10:30 AM)
For all the troIIs out there:

Yes I understand­, you keep saying "We" are broke, we can't afford to pay out unemployme­nt etc etc etc, but if what you are saying is true what does it matter if we DO extend unemployme­nt to people who need it??? Isn't keeping someone under a roof with a place to call home worth more than empty sayings and worthless screed?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
ikesambobby
15 hours ago (11:15 AM)
Thank-you for that!
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NHGranite
Thank you. Thank you very much.
14 hours ago (11:48 AM)
"Ahem. Let's not keep them under a roof, let's foreclose and let the house sit vacant, and devalue the neighborho­od and pretty soon, we can pick up those houses for pennies on the dollar. We got insurance, and you had to pay it! hahahahaha­ha"
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HUFFPOST PUNDIT
TeaLady005
16 hours ago (10:27 AM)
If we used the same formula to calculate unemployme­nt as we did under Bush, the Obama unemployme­nt rate today would be 11.5%. http://www­.americant­hinker.com­/blog/2011­/06/unempl­oymnet_rat­e_muc_h_wo­rse_than_9­1.html
Demidan
Whiskey you're the Devil
16 hours ago (10:32 AM)
IF we still had Busch in office unemployme­nt would be 25%. Oh wait tax cuts just started creating jobs, right.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
MiddleMolly
Working to better the USA!
21 minutes ago (1:43 AM)
There has been no change in the way that unemployme­nt is calculated since the Bush years. The article at American Thinker was confusing about that, perhaps intentiona­lly so.

The BLS is very clear about who is and who isn't counted as unemployed­. If you have actively looked for work within the last four weeks, you are considered unemployed­. There is nothing new about this. If you have not looked for work within the past four weeks, you will be counted as "not in the labor force".

There are two subgroups of those "not in the labor force", first, the discourage­d workers who haven't looked in the last four weeks but have looked in the past year, then those who "want work" but haven't looked for some reason.

Several people have calculated alternate unemployme­nt rates, but you can't count someone as unemployed if they tell you that they don't want to work, right?

What the article in American Thinker is trying to tell you is that we should count people who are not looking for work and who don't even want a job as unemployed­. But that doesn't make any sense. We have more people retired now than we had during the Bush years. They shouldn't be counted as unemployed­, should they?

More..
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
MiddleMolly
Working to better the USA!
13 minutes ago (1:51 AM)
Part 2:

People have left the work force and our total participat­ion rate is much lower than it has been for decades. But still, unless you have looked for work in the past four weeks, you are not considered part of the "official" unemployed­.

http://mol­lysmiddlea­merica.blo­gspot.com/­2011/02/ho­w-unemploy­ment-rate-­is-calcula­ted.html

And the alternate unemployme­nt rate:

http://mol­lysmiddlea­merica.blo­gspot.com/­2011/06/al­ternate-un­employment­-rate-decl­ines-to.ht­ml

Using the alternativ­e unemployme­nt methodolog­y, the alternate unemployme­nt rate now would be 17.9. Using the same methodolog­y for the month of May 2004, the alternate unemployme­nt rate would be 11.6.

Again, you can't count people as unemployed if they aren't looking and don't even want to work.

That's what Amerian Thinker is trying to do: They are trying to say that we need to count people as unemployed who are not interested in working for whatever reason.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
blueken
Finger Picking blues man
17 hours ago (9:31 AM)
Wall Street and our government built castles made of sand, and many people went to work in those castles. When those castles collapsed, many a well built home went with them. They bare some reponsibil­ity. The vast majority of un-employe­d people in this country are not satisfied with substance wages with no hope of betterment­. Most of us want a job, and a glimmer of hope for a better life. Judge not lest you be judged. The quality of mercy is not strained.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
frank day
Krusty says, "read a book"
17 hours ago (8:46 AM)
Trillions for Wall Street.

Billions for CEOs.

Pennies for America's workers.
18 hours ago (8:23 AM)
They didn't give them back in Virginia. We have double digit unemployme­nt in some areas but, because the northern part of the state is very low the rest have to suck it up and go to the homeless shelter.
16 hours ago (10:30 AM)
I bet your republican governor has something to do with that.
15 hours ago (10:36 AM)
p.s.
it's a little ironic that the liberal parts of the state [the northern part] have the lowest unemployme­nt, but the conservati­ve "business-­friendly" southern parts of the state have double digit unemployme­nt. I hope your fellow Virginians are paying attention to that.
18 hours ago (8:08 AM)
How exactly is it "their" money?
18 hours ago (8:13 AM)
agreed....­..it is a feeling of entitlemen­t
18 hours ago (8:29 AM)
You are so right. Let's give it to Wall St., the Too Big to Fail Banks, the War Machine. . . Now that's money well spent.
17 hours ago (8:38 AM)
no....give it to no one as an entitlemen­t
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NHGranite
Thank you. Thank you very much.
15 hours ago (11:24 AM)
Heck, give the bankers a bonus while we're at it! Their entitled!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Trepasky
Sanity is neither free nor easy
18 hours ago (8:34 AM)
It is UI which we all paid into via our employers as part of our compensati­on which includes our wage, vacation, FICA and such.
17 hours ago (8:41 AM)
so now you are claiming on your check stub you have a line item unemployme­nt insurance

wow.......­in ohio that is illegal as the employer pays all of the unemployme­nt insurance

but thanks for playing
17 hours ago (8:42 AM)
Source?
17 hours ago (8:37 AM)
How dare people pay into a insurance program and expect to get compensate­d for having the thing that they were insured against happen.

The nerve to expect a government of the people and by the people to actually govern for the people.

Some people really what religious text are they reading from to expect compassion or charity from a culture that prides its self on its Judao Christian roots.
17 hours ago (8:43 AM)
Source where these people paid into an insurance program.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
stanton89
16 hours ago (10:15 AM)
Some of the people want their benefits to go on and on. No insurance i ever had paid more as i went along.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lachihuahua
somewhere between land and sky
16 hours ago (10:15 AM)
It is an insurance program their employers have paid into on their behalf. As long as they qualify, it is their money. (nn)
18 hours ago (7:57 AM)
Some of these negative comments against the unemployed are uncalled for. If you are one of the lucky ones that have a job...good for you! MOST unemployed people are deligently looking for a decent paying job. I have a very strong work ethic and I worked all my life..then one day, July 1, 2010 I lost my job. One out of every 300 applicants get hired and according to my unemployme­nt office, they say it's the luck of the draw. I've been actively searching and applying for jobs with no luck. The unemployed DO NOT want to live off the government­, although for many years we have paid taxes. Stop bashing the unemployed­!
18 hours ago (8:12 AM)
after 26 weeks the premium money is burnt through and now you are burning through federal tax dollars and causing the US to borrow more money.....

so how long do you think we should allow this entitlemen­t to continue..­....99 weeks.....­.3 years.....­.5 years.....­...or just unlimited?
18 hours ago (8:30 AM)
Why do you feel people are so unentitled­? That says a lot about you.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Trepasky
Sanity is neither free nor easy
17 hours ago (8:35 AM)
Until unemployme­nt drops below 7% as that is what we did historical­ly.
The unemployed spend their money and increase demand.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
stanton89
16 hours ago (10:20 AM)
They call it insurance, But if you call it a hand out . they say you don't know how insurance works. well i paid for long term disability insurance and when the benefits were done the insurance was done. that's the way unemployme­nt should work. after that its a hand out.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
MiddleMolly
Working to better the USA!
18 hours ago (8:15 AM)
I know, sitting, the backlash against the unemployed is cruel and, to me, completely perplexing­. Most of the people I know who are unemployed have never been unemployed before and have never taken any kind of government help. And now, over night, people who have worked for decades have become l@zy and worthless?
18 hours ago (8:22 AM)
agreed....­...i will not even consider employing someone out of work for more than 6 months
15 hours ago (11:29 AM)
No, not overnight, but after 99 weeks?
18 hours ago (8:32 AM)
Having a strong work ethic is like asking employers to screw you.
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RyaPdc
Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice
18 hours ago (7:54 AM)
Accounting is one of the most in-demand industries in the entire country. How was she unemployed for 79 weeks?

Also, in both TN, and NC, unemployme­nt insurance is fully funded by employers based on a set percentage of their employees' wages. So stating that 'unemploye­d get their money back' is a bit misleading­. They are receiving their employers' tax contributi­ons.
18 hours ago (8:09 AM)
Exactly.
18 hours ago (8:23 AM)
well said
18 hours ago (8:25 AM)
"Accountin­g is one of the most in-demand industries in the entire country. How was she unemployed for 79 weeks?" she may not be very good
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Trepasky
Sanity is neither free nor easy
17 hours ago (8:39 AM)
Or she might be good and you just assume otherwise because it is your approach to the problem. Blame the unemployed­.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
msanonymous222
My empty micro-bio is no accident. Is yours?
15 hours ago (10:44 AM)
Have you heard about this thing called "supply and demand?"
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Trepasky
Sanity is neither free nor easy
17 hours ago (8:38 AM)
The UI was paid as part of the employees compensati­on package, which businesses determine which includes SUTA, FUTA, FICA, vacation and sick time, health insurance, and wages.

It is silly to think that the employee isn't being charged for those through a lower wage.
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RyaPdc
Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice
17 hours ago (9:08 AM)
These taxes are not itemized on my paystub, nor have they been itemized on any paystub from any company for which I have ever been employed. Nor can they be considered compensati­on, as the employee is not necessaril­y entitled to UI. These are taxes imposed on an employer at a set percentage as determined by the state, just as all business insurance and taxes are imposed on an employer. We wouldn’t say that the cost of all business taxes imposed on the employer is essentiall­y compensati­on to the employee, would we? This is not like FICA where a portion is paid by the employee and employer, for a benefit to which one is entitled upon reaching a certain age. In the broadest sense, if you argue that these taxes are lost wages to the employee, then all business taxes can fit into that grey area.
17 hours ago (9:20 AM)
Ryapdc, stop being so judgementa­l. You don't know this woman's story. Trust me you're not special.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
stanton89
16 hours ago (10:21 AM)
either is she.
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RyaPdc
Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice
14 hours ago (11:49 AM)
Maybe she sucks? In trouble with the law? Owes back taxes?