First off, having had to deal with so called unemployment “benefits” myself, I can say without a doubt that they are no “benefit”.  You get piddly squat compared to what you were making when you had a job, and, as in the state of Idaho, they impose unrealistic “qualifications” and “standards” for you to continue getting them!!!

Now the Republican dominated U.S. Congress has agreed to reduce what people lucky enough, or who can put up with the qualification game, will get.

Congress had extended unemployment help to a maximum of 99 weeks (and by the way many states did not adopt that policy), now beginning September 2012 that help will be cut back to 73 weeks.

By the way, in the state of Idaho employers pay into the unemployment fund, not employees and not individual taxpayers.  But, Idaho kicks back a refund to employers for having little or no unemployment claims made against them.  The employees who handle unemployment claims are actually paid by the employers who pay into the fund.  A now retired Idaho Job Service (aka Idaho Department of Labor) employee, who worked the Pocatello office handling veterans affairs, and the accounting for kicking back money to employers, once confessed to me (in 2000) that it was in their interest to deny as many claims as possible, since their true employer was not the state but big businesses operating in Idaho!!!

Here’s a trick employers in Idaho use to get out of paying unemployment (it’s happened to me and several other people I know).  Employers will tell you there is no work today, or that work is being cut back and they will call you when they need you.  Of course, after weeks of no work you start looking for new work.  When you apply for unemployment the company you were working for claims you are still employed, but that you hadn’t shown up and they assumed you quit!

In another case I heard about, an guy was working for a national chain home improvement store, and he was told that work schedules were being changed and not to come in until they called with his new schedule.  A week went by, he called and they told him the same thing.  Several weeks went by and he was told the same thing again.  Turns out there wasn’t any actual work schedule change, but if he tried to apply for unemployment the company could legitimately say that the guy “just stopped coming to work”, it would be his word against theirs.

And since the Idaho unemployment system is actually run by employers, guess who wins (unless your wealthy enough to hire a lawyer, which most people aren’t).