Long-term unemployed again will be eligible for unemployment benefits
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN TX The deadline for jobless Texans to qualify for emergency unemployment benefits has been extended to January 3 2012. On Thursday Congress passed the bill which extends the filing deadline to allow long-term claimants to continue receiving unemployment benefits. President Barack Obama signed the bill shortly after it was passed. This action did not add more weeks for those who previously exhausted all state and federal benefits.
Benefits to approximately 100000 Texans stopped due to the previous deadline. The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) has been advising those claimants to continue requesting payment so they now can receive payment. This legislation did not add benefits for those who have exhausted all their regular Emergency Unemployment Compensation and Extended Benefits.
Claimants who are eligible for the federally funded extensions will receive statements from TWC with their new benefit amounts. TWC began sending payments to claimants accounts today and will try to have most eligible claimants paid by the end of this week. Claimants should continue to request unemployment benefit payments on their scheduled day and check their account balances throughout the week.
Claimants can find updated information on their claims at
http://ui.texasworkforce.org or by calling UI Tele-Serv at 1-800-558-8321 and pressing option 2. There is no need to call TWC to qualify for this extension unless claimants receive a letter telling them to call.
Emergency unemployment benefits are entirely federally funded so Texas employers will not be charged for any claims paid on this extension.
TWC and the 28 local workforce development boards remain committed to providing work search assistance training and other services to unemployed Texans. Thousands of job postings are available on WorkInTexas.com TWCs online job-matching Web site at
www.workintexas.com
