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This savings is being estimated from the computer updating alone. The saving in pay outs and getting people back to work is untold here. It should be tremendous....or much improved, at least.
TALLAHASSEE -- Unemployment benefits in Florida are going through some changes.
Starting today, statewide job seekers will have a few more hurdles to clear before they qualify to receive their unemployment checks.
New state rules take effect today requiring jobseekers to make contact with at least five potential employers every week.
And, new claimants must now complete a skills assessment online.
Also starting today, you can only file claims online.
Phoning or mailing it in is no longer available.
Officials say these measures will help streamline the system and save the state almost $5 million annually.
Starting this week, laid-off workers collecting unemployment compensation in Florida will have to show that they are seriously looking for a new job.
And if they get any severance pay, their jobless benefits will be docked until they use it up.
Gov. Rick Scott calls the changes fair, a way to save taxpayers and employers money while prodding a quick return to work.
The Florida AFL-CIO considers the new rules "quite ghoulish," a punishment for victims of the recession.
"What we want to make sure is that all those dollars are spent on people who are looking for a job," Scott said of the unemployment compensation changes he signed into law in June.
"We want to be fair to the individual looking for a job and we want to be fair to the people paying those taxes."
Originally posted by bluemirage5
Your politicians are also taking public money as Police etc so therefore they too should be drug tested
Originally posted by bluemirage5
Your politicians are also taking public money as Police etc so therefore they too should be drug tested
Originally posted by Wetpaint72
While proof of looking for a job isn't a terrible idea, I do think that in these crazy times it may be rather difficult.
Just my opinion...but if you are to take a skills evaluation test,( and let's say you were a welder for 15 years until you were let go from your job) the test would be used to show that you needed to apply for welding jobs, or possibly something in construction.
What happens when there are not 5 jobs available for you to apply for? Would you not get a check then?
I know the tests are there so if you are a welder, you can't apply for jobs as a doctor, or rocket scientist, or beautician, so you would be denied employment, thus continuing your unemployment benefits.
That worked well, in years past, but now days, not so much. There simply are so few jobs listed anywhere.
Plus. Internet access is an expense some unemployed simply can't afford.edit on 1-8-2011 by Wetpaint72 because: Oops
Originally posted by niceguybob
I'll go along with what you said, but that's a pretty dicey slope on the drug testing. I understand the point about drug addicts not getting benefits. I get it.
But in my mind, it's a mom sitting at home with 3 kids and waiting for "joey" to drop off the drug of choice and swat fly's away from the kids.
Or do they have a pint of shnapps in their coffee in the morning?
Or a doobie at night before bedtime?
Or 4 prescription Tylenols with Codein or buy Oxy's or heroin off the street?
I guess my point is,who decides the defintion of drug abuse, and how to effectivly enforce and TREAT it?
A 3 strikes program?
And while I agree in principle that drug abusers are on and in the system,I don't know how you can enforce more laws by drug of choice.
Originally posted by Wetpaint72
reply to post by newcovenant
I do realize that nothing is perfect. But why do things have to be so black and white. This is similar to the system in South Carolina where I grew up. I went in, took the test, and they gave me a book with the jobs they had available. They were numbered in corospondance to the test. And those were the jobs you could apply for. Be it 2 or 10, that was it.
The people who are losers and don't give a crap will find away around the system, they always do.
It's the honest folks who will suffer, they always do.
Originally posted by Wetpaint72
reply to post by newcovenant
Thank you for civil discussion. Sometimes it is hard to come by around here.
This is a sensitive subject for me. My dad is the welder in question. He is 64, been working at the same place for 30 years. There is little work so he only gets to work about one week a month. It is killing him mentally and financially. I have seen him work his butt of, rain or shine, in sickness and in health, and now at 64, what the heck is he supposed to do. Though he can work circles around men half his age, he is still 64 on paper. He deserves that puny check.
And using the Internet for him is laughable to say the least.
Originally posted by Wetpaint72
Hey OP
I have a better idea.
Why not load up all the unemployed on busses, asses their skills, put them to work for the unemployment money.
Raise the unemployment wage to 10.00/ hr. Set them to work mowing highways, fixing bridges, driving public transportation, managing the flow of unemployed to whatever job, child care for those who want to work for their check...on and on.
Now that sounds like a way to weed out lazy, pay a fair temporary wage, and get things done in states that are loosing those services to budget demands.
Originally posted by newcovenant
I would have to be born yesterday.