New unemployment law fixes snag

Measure will restore reduced benefits

By Robert Gavin, Globe Staff | July 23, 2010

New federal legislation that extends emergency unemployment benefits through November also fixes a glitch that drastically cut the benefits of workers who took low-paying part-time or temporary jobs while collecting.

The legislation, passed by the House yesterday and signed into law by President Obama, restores benefits for an estimated 2 million Americans, including 70,000 in Massachusetts, who lost them after the extension program expired in early June. The extensions allow laid-off workers to collect for up to nearly two years. The Senate passed the bill Tuesday after a long partisan stalemate.

The law will also help workers who would have had benefits reduced because they took part-time or temporary jobs to supplement their unemployment checks.

As the economic downturn has dragged on, laid-off workers seeking to renew benefits for a second year were penalized for performing some alternate work while looking for a permanent job. When they did renew, their benefits were recalculated based on low pay from part-time or temporary work.

Earlier this year, for example, the Globe interviewed a carpenter who had benefits cut by 70 percent because he took a construction job that lasted three weeks. A transportation worker who took a six-week job with a lawn service lost 60 percent of his benefits when he renewed his claim after a year.

The fix, which applies to workers who would lose more than $100 a week, or 25 percent of their benefits, means that many who accepted part-time or temporary work will be able to continue to collect full benefits after a year. The provision, however, is not retroactive, and will only help workers who renew their claims after the bill takes effect.

Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed and other Democrats initially proposed that the provision be retroactive. But concerns over costs that held up the larger unemployment bill forced them to scale back the fix, according to Reed’s office.

With the US jobless rate hovering near 10 percent, Congress has wrangled for months over the extensions and other stimulus spending measures. Senate Republicans blocked action, concerned about the burgeoning federal deficits.

Democratic leaders stripped out several measures, including $24 billion to aid struggling state governments, and eventually won the support of Maine Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both Republicans. That, plus the appointment of a new Democratic senator to replace the late Robert Byrd of West Virginia, was enough to break a GOP-led filibuster, bring the unemployment extension bill to a vote, and pass it.

Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, a Republican, voted against the bill.

Massachusetts has a 9 percent unemployment rate and more than 300,000 jobless workers. State officials hailed the approval of the extensions.

“On behalf of the thousands of Massachusetts people still in search of work, I thank the Congress, and especially our own delegation, for passing them this lifeline,’’ Governor Deval Patrick said in a statement. “This extension will help them bridge to better times.’’

Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Joanne Goldstein said it will probably take a “bit of time’’ to send out the retroactive checks because of the complexity of calculating the payments for 70,000 people with different benefits and were cut off at different times. “We are going to do it as quickly and accurately as humanly possible.’’

The state has set up a phone line to answer questions for those who had benefits cut off in recent weeks. The number is 1-888-998-8418. Updates will also be available on the at www.mass.gov/dua/ui. Go to the claimant section.

State officials are advising claimants to continue to certify weekly benefits and have extended hours at telephone claim centers to 7 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m.-1:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Robert Gavin can be reached at rgavin@globe.com.