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How to Apply for Unemployment Benefits and How the Economy Affects You

Once you have been laid off, one of the first things you are likely to think about is how you are going to replace your income. This article is thus intended to serve as a general guide to unemployment benefit.

What to Expect when Applying for Unemployment Benefit

To apply for unemployment benefit, you must first contact your local unemployment office or Job Centre. Check the local JobcentrePlus for more information. With the increase in layoffs, there has also been an increased number of individuals requesting unemployment benefit. Many unemployment offices are holding longer hours but there is still a backlog. In this manner, if your local unemployment office allows you to, applying online will likely expedite the application process.

Once you have applied for unemployment benefit, most offices will verify your unemployment in some way; this may mean a short phone interview, an in person interview with an unemployment officer, or further verification. After your unemployment department has received your claim and all necessary verification, they will calculate your unemployment benefits on your past salary, usually using your last year and a half of salaried time. Your benefits will be proportional to your past salary, but will often cap out at a certain point, depending, again, on where you live. In addition, it is likely it will take a few weeks for you to receive your first unemployment payment after your local agency has received all the necessary materials.

What to Keep in Mind Once you Have Applied

Once you start receiving the money, each week or every other week you will have to complete questionnaire to prove that you are in fact searching for a job; after all, unemployment benefit or the Job Seekers Allowance is intended to assist you in your job search. In addition, unemployment benefits are taxable.

How Brown’s Stimulus Plan will help the Unemployed and the Job’s Market

Brown’s stimulus plan is still being debated by the Press and in the Commons – but, in its present state, the stimulus package aimed to provide fiscal relief in order to compensate for decreasing state budgets. With the downturn in the economy, local councils will need to increase taxes in order to continue the same level of public service they did prior to the downturn. The goal of the stimulus and bank bail out was to keep taxes low while allowing councils to continue to provide social welfare benefits and other local support.

However, according to the Spectator’s Fraser Nelson, Brown’s stimulus will destory jobs – on their website he went on to ask –
‘So what ’highlight’ will the Brown stimulus actually do? Suspiciously, we’ve never been told. In America, Obama has shown the public what they’ll get for their money – how his stimulus would boost employment and the economy. Seeing as no one in Britain has done this exercise, we at The Spectator commissioned Oxford Economics, perhaps the best economic modelers in the country, to have a look. It ran the Brown stimulus, which we define as the various measures taken in the 2008 Pre-Budget Report, through their computers – and the resultant graphs are fascinating. Here’s the first:’

Fraser Nelson continues – "So, in year one, there’s an effect – but we pay for it everafter. This year, the stimulus package is expected to stem the fall in GDP by 0.4 percentage points. So, for example, rather than a 3.2% fall we’d have a 2.8% fall. But next year, when the VAT goes back up and there’s less capita spending, this would reduce GDP growth (or exacerbate GDP shrinkage) by 0.3 points. In 2011, nothing. Then the National Insurance rises and tax hikes for the higher earners kick in – these restrain GDP growth by 0.3% in 2012 and 0.1% in 2013. And what does this mean for jobs? Oxford Economics produces a separate analysis for employment growth, below:"

© Extracts from The Spector Online