Lottie

We were talking about unemployment benefits at work today. I was surprised to find that rather than everyone getting the same amount, in the US, the value of your welfare cheque depends on your salary before you were made redundant and the state that you live in.

For example, in PA, if you have a relatively high salary, your welfare cheque could be as much as $450 per week...! Loads of beer money!

Bob

Aye, it sucks...worse in maine, teachers aren't allowed to collect on SS if they retire or lose job etc...all very random...

Lion in Winter

I think that's unemployment insurance, not welfare. Unemployment insurance depends on how much you paid in - hence on your previous salary. And there is a finite amount.

snowbunny

And it can depend on how much you've paid in *recently*. So what if you get $400 per week if you're limited to ten weeks? I worked for years at a high salary, paid in a good bit, quit to raise two kids, divorced, worked briefly, lost job. My little bit of unemployment money was based on the last eighteen months of employment -- not the ten years I paid in at a high rate.

One of the hardest things to explain to folks who've emigrated from a country with strong nationwide law is the Balkanization of everything due to handing the rights and responsibilities to the individual states. In Texas, there is NO welfare. There is a horribly underfunded unemployment "insurance." Past exhausting that -- good luck. No NHS, no long-term assistance.... people used to shop for states to live in based on welfare benefits, Wisconsin being an attractive one, before Tommy Thompson solved that little problem by getting rid of welfare for everybody.

If you are unemployed in the long-term or disabled, you are far worse off here (unless you can tie blame to your employer and win a lawsuit, and then people wonder why there are so many lawsuits).