{"id":314038,"date":"2020-10-14T05:00:48","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T09:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=314038"},"modified":"2023-11-08T20:13:40","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T01:13:40","slug":"jobless-benefits-only-reached-a-quarter-of-laid-off-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2020\/10\/jobless-benefits-only-reached-a-quarter-of-laid-off-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Unemployed faced major barriers to financial support"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
\"Unemployment

The unemployed fared better in Massachusetts with 65 percent receiving benefits, as opposed to 8 percent in Florida.<\/p>

AP Photo\/Michael Dwyer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWork & Economy\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tUnemployed faced major barriers to financial support\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t
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\n\t\tRobert O'Neill\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHKS Communications\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tJobless benefits during lockdown only reached one out of four laid off workers\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
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Only a quarter of workers who were laid off or furloughed at the height of the pandemic lockdown actually received timely unemployment benefit, according to a survey by Shift Project researchers at Harvard Kennedy School and University of California, San Francisco. The systemic failure caused deep privation, including hunger and housing insecurity.<\/p>\n

The new research<\/a> is based on a survey conducted in April and May of 2,500 workers who lost their jobs from 110 of the largest service sector companies in the United States \u2014 companies in the retail, food service, hospitality, grocery, pharmacy, fulfillment, or hardware sectors. The survey also found enormous variation between states, ranging from 77 percent of unemployed workers who applied for unemployment insurance (UI) receiving unemployment benefits in Minnesota to just 8 percent in Florida.<\/p>\n

The report comes as Congress struggles to approve a new economic rescue package for the country, including the extension of unemployment benefits for affected workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecent debates over the appropriate amount of unemployment insurance benefits often assume that unemployed workers will actually receive these benefits,\u201d said Daniel Schneider<\/a>, professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), professor of sociology at Harvard, and co-principal investigator of the Shift Project. \u201cOur research shows that was far from the case, and the consequences were catastrophic for working families.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n

\u201cThese benefits made a huge difference in keeping workers afloat.\u201d<\/p>\nKristen Harknett, Shift Project\u2019s co-principal investigator<\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n\n

\u201cOur research shows that it doesn\u2019t have to be this way,\u201d said Kristen Harknett, associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and the Shift Project\u2019s co-principal investigator. \u201cAlthough unemployed workers faced delays and barriers in the UI process in some states, states like Minnesota and Massachusetts got UI benefits into the hands of workers who needed them in a timely fashion. \u00a0And these benefits made a huge difference in keeping workers afloat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to the pandemic, the report notes, workers already faced hurdles when applying for unemployment insurance: they needed to document their job searches meticulously, faced long response times, and were also frustrated by technical glitches on state websites. The coronavirus pandemic, and the ensuing lockdown and economic crisis, exacerbated these inefficiencies.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t

\"Workers<\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n\n

The report found those seeking unemployment insurance benefits faced many barriers along the way. Only 76 percent applied for unemployment insurance in the first place, with most of those who failed to make a claim saying they did not believe they were eligible. Another 5 percent of the total fell off along the application process, leaving only 71 percent with completed applications. Of the remaining 39 percent who had not been rejected or had not yet heard back regarding their claim, just 27 percent had actually received benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the share of unemployed workers receiving UI benefits may increase over time,\u201d the researchers write, \u201cour data suggest that workers experience a sizable period of time without benefits. Even among those who had been unemployed for two months or more, only 25 percent had received a UI payment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The absence of unemployment benefits brought real hardships. Researchers found that 26 percent of unemployed workers who had not yet received their benefits experienced hunger in the prior month. \u00a0But, for unemployed workers who received UI, they were no worse-off than those who were still employed. (The researchers point out though that food insecurity remains a chronic condition even for those with service-sector jobs \u2014 13 percent of both employed workers and workers who received UI experienced hunger in the prior month.)<\/p>\n\r\n

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