99 Weeks Later, Jobless Have Only Desperation

[babylonsister]

:cry:

99 Weeks Later, Jobless Have Only Desperation
By MICHAEL LUO
Published: August 2, 2010


BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — Facing eviction from her Tennessee apartment after several months of unpaid rent, Alexandra Jarrin packed up whatever she could fit into her two-door coupe recently and drove out of town.

Ms. Jarrin, 49, wound up at a motel here, putting down $260 she had managed to scrape together from friends and from selling her living room set, enough for a weeklong stay. It was essentially all the money she had left after her unemployment benefits expired in March. Now she is facing a previously unimaginable situation for a woman who, not that long ago, had a corporate job near New York City and was enrolled in a graduate business school, whose sticker is still emblazoned on her back windshield.

“Barring a miracle, I’m going to be in my car,” she said.

Ms. Jarrin is part of a hard-luck group of jobless Americans whose members have taken to calling themselves “99ers,” because they have exhausted the maximum 99 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits that they can claim.

For them, the resolution recently of the lengthy Senate impasse over extending jobless benefits was no balm. The measure renewed two federal programs that extended jobless benefits in this recession beyond the traditional 26 weeks to anywhere from 60 to 99 weeks, depending on the state’s unemployment rate. But many jobless have now exceeded those limits. They are adjusting to a new, harsh reality with no income.

In June, with long-term unemployment at record levels, about 1.4 million people were out of work for 99 weeks or more, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Not all of them received unemployment benefits, but for many of those who did, the modest payments were a lifeline that enabled them to maintain at least a veneer of normalcy, keeping a roof over their heads, putting gas in their cars, paying electric and phone bills.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/us/03unemployed.html?ref=politics

[sakabatou]

1. America seems really f'd.

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. Is this a great Country, eh?

It is for the haves and have mores, whose worries aren't ending up living in their luxury vehicles...no their current worry is will Congress let them keep their 10 yr long tax cuts. :puke:

[Lorien]

2. Damn. I'm mostly unemployed myself and I live in a very small house

but I've been thinking of taking in a single unemployed woman. I don't know any personally, but no one should be forced to live in their car. :-(

[FirstLight]

3. here's my question....

The next-to-the-last rung is welfare/foodstamps...right? well even the welfare people expect you to engage in 32 hours a week of "work-related activity" meaning jobsearch, training, self employment, etc...well if the economy is stalled and there are no jobs, training is basically just a way to postpone the inevitable.

and unemploymnent expects you to do jobsearch verification for some of their paperwork too...


so how are all of us on the skids supposed to KEEP looking for work that DOESN'T exist?

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Are there any states that even provide "welfare" to people without dependent kids?

Serius question. I thought the only welfare left was a strict AFDC type program, and even that had been changed to a 2 or 3 year lifetime payment limit.

[bluestateguy]

5. The next step after unemployment insurance is food stamps, welfare, Medicaid, etc.

So the argument in opposition that we need to cut the cord because of the so-called budget deficit really falls flat.

[lib2DaBone]

7. Thanks for posting Babylon... by the end of Nov.. there will be 3 million more 99-ers..