SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Indiana businesses and the unemployed are both worried about changes that legislators could make to the state's insolvent unemployment insurance program during their upcoming session.
Businesses owners already facing steep increases in unemployment insurance rates in 2011 are concerned they could see more. The unemployed are worried that Gov. Mitch Daniels has said the state needs to make adjustments in the benefits that are paid.
Daniels and other officials say there are inequities that need to be fixed. They say an example is that two people can earn the same annual salaries and receiving starkly different weekly unemployment checks.
State workforce development commissioner Mark Everson said if the correct changes are made, Indiana's unemployment fund should be back in the black by 2020.
If Congress doesn't reauthorize extended unemployment insurance, which expires at the end of November, the National Employment Law Project estimates that two million people will prematurely miss checks by the end of December.
"There's obviously increasing stress, especially among the long-term unemployed, and also the upcoming expiration of these federal extensions will add additional stress," department spokesman Marc Lotter told HuffPost.
Lotter said the agency is putting armed guards at each of the 36 WorkOne Centers that process unemployment benefits across the state. Lotter said that each center has already had security for the past two years; the agency is consolidating to one private contractor that will now handle security at each of the centers. It's part of a broader effort to prepare for the holidays, during which Lotter said Indiana sees more unemployment claims and also an effort to standardize services across the state.
"We've had our staff undergo stress management," Lotter added. "It's much more than just adding armed security. We are trying standardize delivery of services, so that the WorkOne Center in Gary, Ind, will have same service as the one in New Albany."
NELP's Judy Conti told HuffPost that so far Indiana is the only state that has boosted its security ahead of the holidays. "However, we are very aware that agencies are getting ready for the added volume of calls from the long-term unemployed who are going to be very worried and very anxious about Congress taking action in a timely fashion," Conti said.
Over the summer, the Senate dithered for nearly two months as 2.5 million people who've been out of work for longer than six months missed checks. Congress will have only two weeks from the time it reconvenes until the deadline for reauthorizing the benefits
