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I second NC_Job_Hunter in that all of us need to do all we can to drum up support for both the EB trigger update and HR 589. Numbers matter!!! Enlist your friends and family in calling, emailing, even visiting our elected representatives.
Media coverage has begun to expand a little, but it's not in every city, every town in NC. If it's not in your town, call your local paper, call your local news station and tell them your story. Momentum is everything, so let's keep it going!
Joe,
You are correct, it doesn't apply to you, but I also urge you to write to the representatives because the day may come for each of us who are unemployed to depend on the EB benefits that are scheduled to be dropped. We need to have these in place right now during this time of high unemployment! ! !
OK, I will do this. If you have a link to the representatives that we need to contact, please reply with that link. Again, thank you.
PEOPLE ! ! !
I have an update here! ! ! The following e-mail below is from the office of Alexandra F. Sirota, North Carolina Budget And Tax Center. Please read her e-mail personally written to me and follow her instructions if we are to get somewhere here! ! I urge you to also write to her personally at alexandra@ncjustice.org As I said before, Do Not Despair, But Rather, Let Us ALL Work Together And Be Heard If We Are To Get Anything Accomplished! !
BELOW IS ALEXANDRA SIROTA'S ACTUAL MESSAGE TO ME. PLEASE FOLLOW HER GUIDELINES! ! I WILL ALSO DO MY PART TO KEEP EACH OF YOU UPDATED ON ANYTHING ELSE I LEARN! !
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[SIZE=2]Dear Greg,
Thanks for your email and for sharing your story. We are working hard to get a bill introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly to fix the trigger that turned off the Extended Benefit program. It will be critical when that bill gets introduced for you and other folks who have lost jobs in this terrible recession to share their stories with their elected leaders and urge their immediate support of the bill.
We are also starting to collect stories from workers who have lost jobs through video so that we can more quickly share experiences with elected officials and others. If you or someone you know would be interested in sharing your story, let me know. And if you have suggestions on how best to reach folks who have lost their jobs, I would also appreciate any thoughts you may have.
In the meantime, I will send you an update on the bill information as soon as I have news.
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Roughly 37,000 North Carolina residents will lose their unemployment benefits this month.
Legislators could keep that from happening, but so far, lawmakers aren't moving in that direction.
The state Employment Security Commission says the extended benefit program will end April 16. The federally-funded program relies on a specific calculation to determine when states are eligible to award the benefits. North Carolina's falling jobless rate triggered the loss of the payments.
At least eight states have changed the formula to keep the money flowing, and six others are considering it. North Carolina isn't among them.
Alexandra Sirota is the director of the North Carolina Budget and Tax Center. She says it's critical to keep those benefits in place, not just for the unemployed, but for their communities.
Read more: 37,000 in NC face sudden loss of jobless benefits - North Carolina & Regional - Wire - TheSunNews.com (http://www.thesunnews.com/2011/04/05/2082535/37000-in-nc-face-sudden-loss-of.html#ixzz1IfahOkcb - broken link)
People,
This is the last of the news that I have available thus far. This is probably the article that "Stillunemployed" read beforte putting up his last post. To him and to all of you, I ask that you do not despair. Keep your faith and your hope up. At the same time, we need to all join in and actually contact these representatives. With the change of the small "formula" from 2 to 3 year lookback, we can have our wages. This is 100% federally funded, and federally approved till the end of 2011! ! I urge all of you to call your representatives immediately and keep up your spirits! !
The part about NC's "falling jobless rate triggered the loss of payments" is not entirely accurate. In fact it is very misleading. The unemployment rate is still 9.7 percent. The only reason it triggered off EB is because the unemployment rate has been so high for 2 plus years straight. So as it has come down a bit it is still very high, and since it has been even higher for a steady 2+ years we have this little quirk in the calculations that have triggered EB off. The unemployment rate has never been near this high before in NC for such a long period of time. It hit its historic high in Feb 2010 at 11.4 percent and has been above 9.8 percent since Jan 2009. So the reason the EB is being triggered off is because the triggering calculations that are in place for EB do not take into account the length of time the unemployment rate has been so very high. So it doesn't represent an accurate indication of how bad things still are out there. That is why they need to switch to the 3 year lookback.
I gotta believe the NC Congress will act on this and set it right. 9.7 percent...that is still very high and EB should not be getting triggered off when the job market is still very bad.
They gotta step up. And we gotta step up and MAKE them step up!
Cemmy, THANK YOU. If I understand you correctly, The April 16th deadline should not apply to me as I am only in my first 26 of unemployment. The 4/16/11 cut-off has to do with the Fed Backed Money for unemployment correct? State Backed money = EUC08 Tier 1 20 weeks, EUC08 Tier 2 13 weeks, & EB 20 weeks. AM I CORRECT? All State backed Unemployment? not effected?
No, this WILL affect you if you can't find a job before you use all your tiers up. You are in your initial UI so you are safe for now. Then you will go thru the four tiers, and you will still be safe. But then you will be affected by not getting EB when your tiers are up. Yes, by then EB may have still been triggered off if the unemployment rate were to come down further. But really this affects EVERYONE that is on UI. It just affects those of us that are further along in the tiers much sooner.
Oh, and the 20 weeks of EB is what is being taken away. That comes from federal money. That is the ONLY thing that is affected by this. All four tiers will remain as they are thru the end of 2011.
I too emailed my reps today on behalf of you all on or about to go on EB. Mine were exhausted in Jan, but I still felt I should do my part to help those of you that may lose it.
Now, as some of you are seeing, jobs are not a dime a dozen anymore. You have been on UI for a long time and still haven't found anything. Some of you are already on EB now. I urge you all to not only write about keeping EB, but to also do all you can to show support for H.R. 589. You may need this in the near future and if it fails to pass, it might never be brought back up again.
Get geared up and stand up for our only lifeline possibility. EB may be continue pass the new deadline, but it will run out. At least you will know there will still be 14 more weeks, should you need them, if H.R 589 passes.
But we all MUST demand they pass this. Don't be afraid of Boehner, Cantor or your district reps. They do work for you, not the other way around. Contact them, by phone or email or in person, if you can.
This bill will apply to EVERYONE, so do your part now to make sure it is there for you, should you need it.
EB is uncertain now, as is H.R. 589. It is up to YOU to get these passed. Sit around and do nothing, and you very well may regret it down the road. I don't care if you just now started drawing UI, support these now.
I have seen very little response to my postings on this subject. Kinda makes me feel no one gives a crap about it. But if the time comes and your UI runs out and you still are not working, you may look back and think, 'I really should have done my small part'. We need numbers folks and we them NOW. Time is running out and everyone that is on UI, friends and family of those on UI, please help support this bill.
Jobs are extremely hard to find right now. Who remembers hiring bonuses? Seen any lately? There was once a time, not too long ago, where there were more jobs than there were workers to fill them. Those days are gone and now it is completely the other way around. Knocking a percentage point off the national unemployment level here and there isn't enough. There are still MILLIONS out of work!
So, take it from someone that has been looking for over 2 years. Jobs are not a leave out at 8:00am, come back home at 12:00 and have 3 jobs lined up to take your pick of to start at the next day. Things used to be like that and hopefully once again will be. But for now, you better fight and fight hard for UI extensions, because you very well may need them.
I will definitely contact everyone involved. I think people aren't responding because many of them have done what you suggest and they still do nothing. I don't know how many times I phone and email Burr during all the extension mess and not only did I not get a response but Burr consistently voted against it.
With that said you are right we still need to call even if they do nothing. fi we don't absolutely nothing will happen.
just emailed everyone on both list. I'll do the same for the federal bill tomorrow. I need to sleep. Career fair at UNCC tomorrow for those who are students.!
Apr 16 is about 3 weeks into my EB, so this retroactive "trigger" was a low blow. I've contacted every government official mentioned in the past page or two of this thread both electronically and by phone, as well as posting details to my Facebook page, about both this and the HR 589.
I don't know which feels more like pixxing in the wind, calling recruiters or calling republicans, but I've spent the day doing both and will keep my fingers crossed.
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