GOP amendment would take control of COVID-19 relief funds away from governor. //end headline wrapper ?>Unemployment Insurance Claims Office. Photo by Bytemarks (CC-BY).
A proposed tax break for people who lost their jobs and collected unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic got a boost Wednesday but it also got snared in the Legislature’s recurring party-line conflicts.
While the bill, SB-267, was introduced by Democrats, it passed the Senate Labor and Regulatory Reform Committee on a 3-2 vote Wednesday, and both Democrats on the committee voted against it.
The legislation would waive state income taxes in 2020 and 2021 on the first $10,200 of unemployment compensation that a taxpayer receives in either year.
Biden administration releases new guidelines making previously denied applicants eligible for up to 79 weeks of unemployment. //end headline wrapper ?>Unemployment Insurance Claims Office. Photo by Bytemarks (CC-BY).
Tens of thousands of people in Wisconsin whose applications for COVID-19 pandemic unemployment benefits were denied could be eligible for up to 79 weeks of unemployment payments.
There are three main categories of newly eligible workers:
Those who declined to return to work at a site that wasn’t complying with COVID-19 safety standards, such as requiring face masks and physical distancing.
Those working for an educational institution who became unemployed or partially unemployed after COVID-19 scrambled workers’ schedules.
//end headline wrapper ?>Unemployment Insurance Claims Office. Photo by Bytemarks (CC-BY).
Wisconsin unemployment rate leveled out at 3.8% in March, the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) reported Thursday, but still higher than the state’s pre-pandemic rate a year ago.
While the state’s March jobless rate was well below the national rate of 6%, it was unchanged from February, evidence of a slowing recovery in the battle to come back from the depths of the COVID-19-induced downturn.
In March 2020, just before the widespread layoffs that the pandemic triggered, Wisconsin’s unemployment rate was 3.2%.
Wisconsin employers reported 129,000 fewer jobs in March 2021 compared with March 2020, including a deficit of 98,300 jobs in the private sector. Half of the shortfall was in the leisure and hospitality sector, including restaurants, recreation and entertainment, where there were 47,600 fewer positions than a year ago. Education and health care had 18,600 fewer jobs, D
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment has been flooded with fraudulent claims for unemployment insurance â more than 1.1 million claims have been flagged as possibly fraudulent since the start of 2020.Â
Bank employees and customers, like those in other industries, have been targeted by scammers who have used their identities to file false claims.Â
While many of these claims are now being caught by more sophisticated identification tools, many others result in great inconvenience for businesses and individuals and in millions of dollars in payments to scammers.Â
According to Jessica Smith, CDLE Division of Unemployment Insurance press secretary, scammers were successful in stealing $6,562,264 through fraudulent claims in 2020, but the department prevented more than $91 million in fraud losses.