Advocacy in Action: Strengthening Unemployment Insurance for Workers and Families

NELP’s Advocacy in Action series showcases our groundbreaking, collaborative advocacy work with partners nationwide to build a good-jobs economy for all workers.

Shernice Mundell devoted her career to public service, first in the Air Force, then at the Office of Personnel Management, where she helped retired postal workers access health care. In February 2025, she was abruptly fired during the Trump administration’s mass termination of federal workers. Overnight, Shernice’s livelihood was taken from her—leaving her to navigate the shock of losing not just a job, but the stability and future she had worked hard to build. She was left wondering who would care for the people she once served.

For workers like Shernice, unemployment brings both uncertainty and reflection. As she described it, “It’s been an emotional roller coaster … but the good part is I’m able to pursue something that I have a passion for.”

That’s why a strong unemployment insurance system matters—it gives people time to breathe, plan, and move forward. It’s a foundation to stand on while rebuilding your future. But too often, this vital support is out of reach, tangled in confusing systems, unfair rules, and unnecessary delays that leave too many workers behind.

The Challenge

Every worker deserves stability between jobs—but our unemployment insurance (UI) system falls short for the people who need it most. A good-jobs economy is one where all workers have security, dignity, and real choices about their future, even when work is disrupted. But today’s UI system is outdated, inequitable, and exclusionary.

Nationally, only about one in four unemployed workers receive UI benefits. Millions are excluded by complex state eligibility rules that disproportionately shut out workers of color, women workers, older workers, and workers with disabilities. In many states, workers must navigate confusing websites to apply for benefits, decipher forms and materials that aren’t in their primary language, and endure long delays to connect with staff at overburdened and underfunded state UI agencies. Workers who do receive UI often find that benefits are too low to adequately support their families, and support is often cut off before workers can secure new employment.

This is more than a bureaucratic failure—it’s a racial and economic justice crisis that deepens inequality and weakens the workforce. As federal workers face mass terminations and workers in all sectors confront growing economic uncertainty under the Trump administration, NELP is taking action to strengthen UI so that anyone who is out of work can sustain themselves while they find a new job. From national coordination to grassroots wins, here’s how we’re building a more just and resilient UI system for the workers who need it most.

Our Advocacy in Action

NELP is working toward a future where no worker falls through the cracks—and where UI is a foundation for economic resilience and racial equity. For decades, we’ve been national leaders in UI reform, fighting to ensure workers have the time and support they need to recover, rebuild, and return to work with dignity. As trusted national experts and strategic partners in state policy fights, NELP plays a leading role in transforming UI: We convene coalitions to expand benefits, draft model legislation, and provide legal expertise in major court cases. We conduct groundbreaking research, offer technical assistance and expert testimony to advocates and policymakers, and ensure the perspectives of unemployed workers are reflected in the media.

Standing Up for Public Servants Facing Mass Termination

NELP’s deep experience on unemployment positioned us to act swiftly when the Trump administration unjustly terminated federal public servants like Shernice in early 2025. NELP coordinated with and educated federal union representatives, worker advocates, state UI advocates, and congressional leaders, helping them to understand the UI program for federal workers known as Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees.

• We rapidly compiled a resource guide for advocates and a Q&A for terminated federal workers in collaboration with national partners at the Century Foundation and National Academy of Social Insurance. We also organized a national call with advocates and unions that developed into an ongoing “mass federal termination” working group.
• NELP supported and help guide the creation of Rise Up: Federal Workers Legal Defense Network—alongside partners like the AFL-CIO, We the Action, Democracy Forward, and the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights—to connect federal workers who have been fired or have concerns about their federal employment to attorneys.
• In order to raise awareness about and address problems in applying for and administering benefits for federal workers, NELP coordinated with congressional leadership and facilitated connections between legal advocates and state agencies that administer UI programs.

Federal Advocacy and Coalition Power

NELP’s work on behalf of terminated public servants builds on our broad federal advocacy and coalition work on behalf of all workers facing unemployment.

• To address the serious shortfalls in the nation’s unemployment insurance system, NELP advocates for permanent federal UI reform, including the landmark bill, the UI Modernization and Recession Readiness Act. This critical legislation would guarantee adequate unemployment benefit amounts and duration in all states, ensure enhanced benefits are automatically available in the next economic downturn, and establish new programs to support unemployed workers who are excluded from the UI system. Working closely with congressional sponsors, NELP organized briefings on the bill and worked to secure co-sponsors.
• At the same time, NELP is standing up to Trump administration cuts that threaten to undermine the already crumbling and underfunded systems of UI administration. Working with national partners, we advocate for preserving vital funds that states need to improve their UI systems.
• Our advocacy at both the federal and state levels is grounded in the UI Movement Network, a nationwide table of UI advocates that NELP coordinates and leads. It includes a mix of national partners like the AFL-CIO, American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), The Century Foundation, and NASI, as well as state groups as diverse as Washington State’s Unemployment Law Project, Step Up Louisiana, Policy Matters Ohio, and Greater Boston Legal Services. As part of the Network, advocates share updates, resources, and strategies, and stay closely connected though the online NELP UI Advocates Community, hosted on our NELP Connect

State Policy Wins

With progress at the federal level halted, NELP is doubling down on advancing UI policy at the state level. Reforming state UI laws and systems has a powerful impact on the lives of unemployed workers, because states can expand eligibility rules to include more workers, increase benefit levels and duration so that workers have sufficient support during their job search, and reduce barriers to accessing benefits. That’s why NELP created the UI Policy Hub, an ever-expanding list of state policy resources, including model legislation, to improve state UI programs and strengthen economic security for workers and their families.

Working closely with state partners through the UI Movement Network (see above) and on a state-by-state basis, NELP is achieving critical gains for unemployed workers across the country. Recent state wins include:

• Virginia: NELP partnered with Social Action Linking Together (SALT), Legal Aid Justice Center, Virginia Poverty Law Center, and Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis to advocate for a new law that raised benefit amounts by $52 a week and doubled the amount of income workers can earn without losing benefits.
• Colorado: In close collaboration with Colorado Fiscal Institute, Bell Policy Center, National Immigration Law Center, and Towards Justice, we helped win successful legislation that enhanced unemployment benefits for part-time workers, phased out the waiting period to get benefits, and expanded support to workers excluded from the UI system.
• Washington: NELP supported state partners like the Washington AFL-CIO to enact a law expanding UI to include striking workers. NELP continues to convene labor advocates across the country to advance this policy.
• Indiana: Supporting partners at the Indiana Community Action Poverty Institute and the state AFL-CIO, NELP contributed to an important defensive fight to prevent Indiana from cutting the number of weeks of UI benefits that workers can receive.

Critical Legal Support

NELP has been defending the legal rights of unemployed workers since 1971. Our most recent legal battles include Amazon Logistics v. Virginia Employment Commission, where NELP filed an amicus brief arguing that drivers working for Amazon Flex are misclassified as independent contractors and should be eligible for UI under Virginia law. With our support, Flex drivers won the right to UI benefits in Virginia.

All workers, including those who work for religiously affiliated employers, deserve the right to unemployment benefits if they lose their job. That’s why NELP joined Legal Action of Wisconsin, the Economic Policy Institute, the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, Wisconsin Employment Lawyers Association, and the New York Legal Assistance Group in submitting an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission. We made the case that a broad exemption for religious employers would harm workers and undermine the purpose of UI.

Research That Drives Change

NELP’s original research and analysis highlights the critical importance of unemployment insurance while exposing the serious ways the system falls short, leaving jobless workers in crisis. Our research elevates the concerns of unemployed workers in the public debate and drives legislation and regulatory efforts, including helping federal policymakers to understand the strengths and shortcomings of UI programs during the COVID-19 pandemic and informing ongoing policy debates in the states.

Below are highlights of NELP’s recent research on UI:

• The Unemployed Worker Study, a rare look at the experiences of 1,480 workers navigating unemployment, revealed that one in three workers who received unemployment benefits still struggle with food insecurity and difficulty paying their rent or mortgage, underscoring the need for improved benefits. This research helped raise the alarm about the urgent need to reform UI and was featured in a recent congressional briefing.
• To make the case for performance standards on equitable access to UI benefits for workers who are shut out of the system, NELP researchers consulted with advocates and experts across the country to develop a set of proposed federal access standards. Our work helped to inform the U.S. Department of Labor’s UI transformation plan and regulations on equitable access to UI. NELP research is continuing to highlight ways states can make a difference in reducing barriers to UI access, for example, by using plain language in all communications with UI applicants.
• We also conduct rapid analysis of monthly jobs data, providing context to help the media accurately explain what the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics really mean for workers and jobseekers.

The Road Ahead

The UI system must be transformed into a pillar of economic justice. That’s why NELP is leading the charge. With our partners, we continue to build momentum for the federal UI overhaul workers need. We are pursuing inventive ways for states to support workers who are excluded from the UI system and advancing innovative policies to build worker power, collaborating with union leaders and state labor federations in seven states to provide UI benefits to workers who are on strike or locked out of their jobs.

At NELP, we believe unemployment insurance isn’t just about surviving job loss—it’s about creating the conditions for thriving work. A good-jobs economy is one where every jobless worker has the dignity, support, and opportunity to move forward—not fall behind.