Know Your Rights Guide to the May 2003
Federal Extension of Unemployment Benefits
(June 11, 2003)
By National Employment Law Project

In March 2002, a temporary program of extended unemployment benefits was created by federal law, called the Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program. The TEUC program, providing up to 13 weeks of extended benefits in most states, was scheduled to end on December 31, 2002.   On January 9th, after allowing the program's deadline to pass, Congress and the President enacted another federal law continuing the TEUC program for five more months, until May 31, 2003.  On May 28th, the TEUC program was continued once again, and it is now scheduled to end December 31, 2003.

The Regular 13-Week Program of Extended Unemployment Benefits

1. How many weeks of unemployment benefits are available under the May 2003 extension of the TEUC program?  Like the original TEUC law, the latest extension of the program provides up to 13 weeks of federal extended benefits to those workers who have run out of their 26 weeks of state unemployment benefits.  As described below, workers in a small number of "high unemployment" states can collect up 26 weeks of TEUC (called TEUC-X).

2. Who is eligible to collect unemployment benefits under the May 2003 extension of the TEUC program?  The May 2003 law simply continues the TEUC program past the May 31st deadline. Thus, it provides extended benefits to most workers who started running out of their state unemployment benefits as of June 1st.  Anyone who runs out of state unemployment benefits after December 31st will not be eligible for the TEUC program.

3. If a worker ran out of TEUC benefits before May 31st, is she now eligible to collect another 13 weeks of benefits under the latest extension of the program?  No.  A worker can collect no more than 13 weeks of benefits under any of the extensions of the TEUC program (unless the worker comes from a "high unemployment" state, as described in Questions 6-10).

4. How does the December 31st deadline work if someone has not yet collected all 13 weeks of her TEUC benefits?  Under the May 2003 law, workers who started collecting benefits before December 31st can receive their full 13 weeks of TEUC benefits.  However, under no circumstances can a worker collect TEUC after March 31, 2004.

5. How do workers apply for the TEUC program of extended benefits?  The state agencies that operate the regular unemployment insurance program also administer the federal TEUC program.  Workers who are about to run out of their regular state unemployment benefits should be automatically notified by their states that they can apply for the TEUC program. In some states, workers will be directly enrolled in the federal program after they have run out of their state unemployment benefits.

"High Unemployment" States Collect 26 Weeks of Federal Benefits

6. When are workers eligible for 26 weeks of federal TEUC benefits?  To qualify for up to 26 weeks of federal benefits under the TEUC-X program, a worker must have run out of her first 13 weeks of TEUC benefits during a state's "high unemployment" period.  Thus, a worker will not qualify for TEUC-X if she ran out of her first 13 weeks of TEUC before the state reached the required "high unemployment" period. (See the Table below for the state qualifying dates).

For example, Connecticut was the most recent state to qualify for the TEUC-X program when it passed the required level of unemployment beginning the week of April 6, 2003.  As a result, only those workers who ran out of their first 13 weeks of TEUC after the week of April 6th can qualify for another 13 weeks of federal jobless benefits.  
 
7. What states currently qualify for TEUC-X benefits?  As of June 8, 2003, only six states (Alaska, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington) were considered "high unemployment" states qualifying for TEUC-X.

8. Once designated as a "high unemployment" state, does that mean that the state will always be allowed to pay TEUC-X benefits?  No. Once a state reaches the necessary level of unemployment required to "trigger on" to the TEUC-X program, then the program automatically lasts for a period of at least 13 weeks.  However, after the 13-week grace period ends, the state must remain above the required unemployment level each subsequent week or the program will "trigger off."  As a result of these federal restrictions, several states have ended up qualifying for TEUC-X for very limited periods of time (including Arkansas, California, Idaho, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina and Wisconsin).

9. Are there any states that now qualify for TEUC-X that are expected to drop off the program in the near future?  Yes.  Connecticut and Massachusetts are about to "trigger off" the TEUC-X program.   Workers in Massachusetts who run out of their first 13 weeks of TEUC after June 14th will no longer qualify for another 13 weeks of TEUC. And workers in Connecticut who run out of their first 13 weeks of TEUC after July 5th will no longer qualify for another 13 weeks of TEUC.

10.  What are the rules that determine whether a state is designated as a "high unemployment" state?  As described below, the original TEUC law adopted three restrictive formulas that determine whether a state is eligible to receive up to 26 weeks of extended unemployment benefits.

• 4% "Insured Unemployment Rate":  Under this option, the state must first have what's called an "insured unemployment rate" (or IUR) of at least 4% calculated over a 13-week period.  (What is the IUR?  The IUR counts the number of people claiming regular unemployment benefits divided by the number who are covered by the unemployment system.  The IUR does not count those workers who have run out of their regular state UI benefits and are collecting the federal extension.)  Second, the state's IUR must also have increased over each of the last two years to at least 120% of its latest 13-week average rate. 

(Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania currently qualify for TEUC-X under the 4% IUR formula.  However, Connecticut and Massachusetts will "trigger off" the program because their rates have fallen below the required 4% IUR.  As of June 8th, Idaho was above the required 4% IUR, but it did not qualify because its rate failed to also increase the required amount during the past two years.)

• 6% "Insured Unemployment Rate":  Under this option, the state must have an IUR of at least 6%. It is not necessary for the state's rate to have also increased, as required under the 4% IUR option described above.  This formula only applies in those states (including all but 12) that have passed state legislation adopting the option under another permanent federal program.

(Only Alaska's IUR has exceeded 6% in recent years. As of May 25th, Alaska thus qualified for TEUC-X.) 

• 6.5% "Total Unemployment Rate":  Under this final option, the state must have a "total unemployment rate" (TUR) of at least 6.5% averaged over the latest three months.   (What is the TUR?  The TUR is the official unemployment rate released monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The TUR is based on a survey that counts the number of unemployed workers actively seeking work divided by the total workforce.)  In addition, to qualify for TEUC-X, the current TUR must be at least 110% of the rate compared with either of the past two years.  This option is only available in the states (currently including Alaska, Connecticut, Kansas, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington) that have adopted the required state legislation.

(Oregon and Washington qualify for TEUC-X based on the 6.5% TUR option.  As of June 8th, California, Illinois, Michigan and Texas would qualify under this option if they had enacted the required state legislation. )

11. How can workers find out if their state qualifies for TEUC-X or is getting close to qualifying?  If the state qualifies for TEUC-X, the state's unemployment agency should issue a notice in the mail to all eligible workers and post the information on the web.  For workers who want to monitor the situation, the state figures are published weekly on-line by the U.S. Department of Labor at http://atlas.doleta.gov/unemploy/teuc.asp. 

12. Are there other state or federal programs that provide additional weeks of unemployment benefits?  Yes.  Some states (including Kansas, Utah and Oregon) provide extra weeks of unemployment benefits as part of separate state-funded programs (New Hampshire's Legislature recently passed at 13-week extension, which is expected to be signed by the Governor).   Other state programs  also provide added weeks of unemployment benefits to workers who have been laid off from jobs in certain hard-hit industries.  There are also special federal programs providing training and extra unemployment benefits for workers who lost their jobs due to trade imports and exports and due to layoffs in the airline industry. For more information about these and other helpful programs, see  www.UnemployedWorkers.org.

When TEUC-X Begins and Ends
For Those States That Qualify for the Program
(as of June 8, 2003)*

State                               TEUC-X Begins                                   TEUC-X Ends

Alaska                           November 11, 2002                              Present
Connecticut                   April 6, 2003                                         July 5, 2003
Massachusetts             March 16, 2003                                    June 14, 2003
Oregon                          March 10, 2002                                    Present
Pennslyvania                 February 2, 2003                                 Present
Washington                   March 10, 2002                                    Present

* The state figures are published weekly on-line by the U.S. Department of Labor at http://atlas.doleta.gov/unemploy/teuc.asp.