Promoting Reemployment and Safeguarding Benefits
From Unemployment to Reemployment.
State unemployment insurance (UI) programs are meant to serve as a temporary safety net while individuals look for work—not as a permanent entitlement. Due to shortsighted pandemic policies that lingered long after jobs returned, many people remained on UI for as many as 20 months while getting paid more to stay home than find work. This should never happen again.
Even now, long after the pandemic itself, the United States is experiencing a major worker shortage as businesses in every state desperately search for employees to fill jobs and try to keep their doors open.
Policymakers at the state and federal level have a role to play by implementing reforms that help move individuals from unemployment to reemployment. It is all about unleashing the power of work, allowing even more Americans to find fulfillment, dignity, and prosperity for themselves and their families.
Unemployment programs also must be reformed to weather future economic downturns. UI trust funds in many states have been depleted because of fraud and abuse that only worsened during the pandemic, largely due to the very policies that were sold to states as a way out of the crisis.
Safeguards should be put in place to:
- Detect fraud before it happens;
- Prevent the ineligible from drawing benefits; and
- Preserve resources for the truly needy.
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research
How Mandatory E&T Can Boost the Economy and Help Solve the Worker Shortage
Moving able-bodied adults from welfare to work will help address the country’s labor force woes, boost the economy, and set states back on the path to prosperity.
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research
To Restore Confidence in Unemployment Systems, States Must Pass Commonsense Reforms
Unemployment fraud existed long before COVID-19, and it will continue to exist so long as policymakers allow it to. Through simple, proven reforms, policymakers have an opportunity to emulate the successful models of other states and protect their UI trust funds.
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Indexing Unemployment Set Kansas on Solid Ground
Kansas set itself up for success by tying unemployment benefit duration to economic conditions, and other states should follow.
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A Dozen States Enact Bipartisan Program Integrity Laws to Protect Unemployment Insurance Programs
State lawmakers have a tremendous opportunity right now to protect their state UI programs and fortunately, a dozen states have already led the way, showing how it can be done.
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Our Promoting Reemployment and Safeguarding Benefits Solutions
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Our Promoting Reemployment and Safeguarding Benefits Research
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ResearchWhy States Should Ban Universal Basic Income Schemes
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ResearchIndexing Unemployment Set Kansas on Solid Ground
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ResearchA Dozen States Enact Bipartisan Program Integrity Laws to Protect Unemployment Insurance Programs
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ResearchTo Restore Confidence in Unemployment Systems, States Must Pass Commonsense Reforms
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ResearchPlanning for Success: How States Can Reform Their Food Stamp Programs and Revive the Workforce
At FGA, we don’t just talk about changing policy—we make it happen.
By partnering with FGA through a gift, you can create more policy change that returns America to a country where entrepreneurship thrives, personal responsibility is rewarded, and paychecks replace welfare checks.