Michigan residents could see their unemployment benefits grow under bills that passed the state Senate Thursday.
The legislation would extend the amount of time someone can claim unemployment benefits to up to 26 weeks in a year. That’s six weeks more than what’s currently available to Michigan residents.
Over the next three years, the legislation would also gradually raise the maximum amount someone could receive.
State Senator John Cherry (D-Flint) said it’s been too long since those numbers have seen an update.
“We are extremely low. ... We are below federal poverty rate. So that's a tough situation for people to be at. If they lose their job for two months before they get a new one, being able to make sure they're providing food for their kids and all that,” Cherry said.
Some business groups are criticizing the legislation as raising costs for employers.
In a statement, the Michigan Manufacturers Association called the legislation a “dramatic increase.”
“Increasing the weekly maximum benefit with an undefined cost to Michigan job providers is irresponsible and will threaten the state’s competitiveness compared to neighboring states. In addition, this large increase will threaten the solvency of Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund which will trigger even higher tax increases placed upon the backs of employers. Michigan manufacturers will be facing a powerful disadvantage,” MMA Director of Employment Policy David Worthams said in a press release.
Other bills in the package would require the state to take more steps before reclaiming unemployment benefits that may have been wrongly paid.
They’re part of an attempt to improve the unemployment filing experience and cut back on the state wrongly accusing people of fraud.
“Government's done great work on nailing down fraud. But we've seen settlements, court settlements in which the department has had to pay millions upon millions of dollars to folks who were falsely accused of fraud. And this helps make sure that that those folks are not getting caught up in the system,” Cherry said.
But Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Twp) said lawmakers should focus on other issues with the state’s unemployment system instead, like fraudulent claims and delays in checks going out.
“There’s huge problems at the Unemployment Insurance Agency, what they passed today doesn't do anything, doesn't fix the problems that's there,” he said.
The legislation would still need to make it past the Michigan House and receive the governor’s signature to become law.
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