Buffalo area jobless rate on rise - Business First of Buffalo:

lehoquvuhu.wordpress.com
Present and future laid-off workers get a helping hand in the recentlhy enacted federalstimulus bill, which lessensd restrictions on unemployment benefits and assists them in keepinv health-care coverage while also making it more Here are several ways that it “There is no longerf a tax on the firstt $2,400 in unemployment benefits,” says John an economist with the state Labor Department’xs Buffalo office. Previously, benefits were taxed 100 percent. the benefit rate was increasedby $25 a week and the number of weeks that benefits can be paid has been extended from 26 to he says.
Unemployment benefits also will continuea 33-weeo expansion, extending the period to 59 weeks. Unemployedf workers also will receive financial help with theirthealth insurance, which wouled be dropped by employers if they lose theire jobs not by Mark Stulmaker, who specializes in employee-benefits law, said this is “by one of the biggest benefits for employees in the stimulusd package. Under the stimulus, the federal government will pay 65 perceng of the health insurance premiums that unemployerd workers pay under theCOBRsA program.
COBRA, which stands for Consolidate d Omnibus BudgetReconciliation Act, lets laid-off workers keep the same healtuh coverage that they had at their old jobs. COBRA is “This subsidy is a prettyy big help to people who otherwisde are lookingat $1,000-a-month premiums for families,” said He represents pension and health-cars funds for the Buffalo firm . The benefit, whichg is available to employees who were laid offaftetr Sept. 1, 2008, will continue through Dec. 31, 2009. “Withouty it, people basically don’t get coverage, because they can’t affored it. This (subsidy) also gives people who didn’tg take COBRA a second chance toget it,” he said.
Workera who didn’t sign up for COBRAz coverage will have an extra 60 days to COBRA gives workers the right to choosr to continue group health benefits provided by their groupp health plan for a limited time undercertain circumstances, includinhg job loss. Under the stimulus package, the COBRwA subsidy is limited to workeres whose incomes are lessthan $125,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples filing Aside from COBRA assistance, the stimulus prograkm provides only indirect said Robert Doren, managing attorney of ’s Buffalo office.
These come to employeesx in the form of financialk assistance for some of the sectorsx theywork in, such as construction and publicv transportation, where highway and bridge projects will benefit. “Buf that will take a periode of time before itgets there. In my the (stimulus benefit) is all trickle-downb effect, assuming there is any trickle-down at said Doren, who specializes in labor and employment lawfor