Fla. benefits face cuts

TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s 836,000 unemployed workers are in for more bad news: Their unemployment benefits are going to start running out sooner.

State officials said last week that 20 weeks of federal extended unemployment benefits are to start disappearing next month. That’s on top of three weeks of state unemployment benefits that evaporated in January for the newly unemployed.

Bottom line: The meager check for the state’s unemployed — $275 a week — is going to have to stretch further.

The change is more the result of policy decisions in Washington and Tallahassee than a reflection of the state’s improved economic scenario.

“It’s not fair to characterize it as an indicator of an improved economy,” said Maurice Emsellem, policy co-director of the National Employment Law Project. “It’s just an indicator that the econo- my hasn’t gotten worse.”

About 30,000 people in Florida are currently drawing extended federal benefits. How long someone can receive unemployment benefits depends on a person’s individual circumstances — mainly when they first started receiving their benefits. The state and federal government had been paying benefits for a maximum of 99 weeks. That number will be smaller going forward, though how small depends on the state’s unemployment rate and whether Congress acts to extend another program set to expire in December.

The state Department of Economic Opportunity estimates 14,000 Floridians may apply for extended benefits through May 12, the last week they can be paid regardless of any benefits remaining on the claim. Some may be eligible for a 10-week extension through June.

Florida is one of eight states losing the additional benefits, which are expected to be phased out nationwide by fall.

To continue offering extended benefits, Florida’s unemployment rate would have needed to exceed 10 percent based on a formula devised by Congress called the threeyear “look-back.” Officials knew that was unlikely to happen.

The number of people receiving unemployment assistance in Florida has been in decline since peaking in mid-2009. Recipients of federal and state unemployment compensation dropped from 561,736 on Jan. 31, 2011, to 345,052 on March 31, 2012.

Economists and Gov. Rick Scott credit a brightened economic outlook.

In 2011, the Republicanled Legislature passed several measures to restrict access to unemployment compensation, including moving the application process online, requiring an online workplace skills review and making recipients prove they made contact with at least five prospective employers each week.