Restructuring UI

Access to the nation’s UI safety net has failed to keep pace with the growing numbers of women, part-time and low-wage workers.  However, with the support provided by NELP’s UI Safety Net Project, state advocates and policy makers have made significant progress in recent years exposing the gaps in the UI system and campaigning for state eligibility reforms.  The Project provides in-depth assistance to state campaigns by evaluating state laws, proposing model policies, and generating the empirical research needed to best document the case for reform UI.   The Project also provides its state network with timely updates and policy analyses of key UI initiatives, both at the state and federal levels.

The current federal "devolution" plan fails to address the long-term decline in the percent of unemployed workers receiving unemployment benefits and, in fact, hurts workers in several ways.   It’s now up to the states to take the high road in addressing this problem.  In the wake of our national economic downturn, more than half of state legislatures are actively considering measures to strengthen unemployment insurance.   The following package compiles the best information on how states are restructuring the UI system.

To see a map of UI reform in the states, click here.

The materials in this package come in large part from the hard work of the   National Employment Law Project, with supporting documents from the Center for Policy Alternatives, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Economic Policy Institute, and the AFL-CIO.  ALICE thanks these groups for mapping out  the high road to reforming Unemployment Insurance in the states.

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