The Texas policy concerning unemployment benefits appears to be very relaxed in its regulation. This soft style regulation calls for abuse of its system and negative consequences for the state. The eligibility requirements for benefits merely consist of having earned wages in more than one of the previous four quarters preceding one's claim. Also your base wages earned during that period must be at least 37 times more than your benefit amount. There is limited restriction on the cause of separation from one's prior employer. Even those who quit their jobs could remain eligible for unemployment, which is rightfully justified since there are always situations that could warrant such a decision. However, once one has become eligible for benefits, the obligations to earn the benefits are rarely regulated by state authorities. This creates a problem by encouraging unemployment fraud, which is both wasteful of state spending and unprogressive to the state's workforce.
The way the system is set up now allows for no solid evidence to the amount of fraud currently taking place. However, the enforcement to eliminate fraud is severely lacking, and it would be naïve to believe it doesn't take place. There are several obligations that one must complete in order to remain eligible for benefits. First, you must register to work in the state of Texas. Next, you must actively seek work. The requirement is for one to complete five job searches each week. A job search would consist of actually applying to work for a certain position. They require you to document your work searches weekly by filling out a document that requires basic information: name of employer, address, person contacted, and whether an application was filed. Finally, you must accept suitable full-time work. In order to actually receive the weekly payment benefit, one must fill out a payment request each week. The request only asks the individual to verify that they were available for full-time work and completed the minimum number of work searches during that period. There is no obligation for the beneficiary to submit any confirmation of their work searches. In my opinion, this allows for individuals to merely obtain state money without any "required" obligations. The only way for the Texas Workforce Commission, the state authority concerning unemployment, to catch fraudulent beneficiaries would be to audit the individual and verify their work searches. The audits, however, are very few and far between. A lack of resources could be the reason for such few audits, but this also causes the loss of valuable financial resources as well.
The solution to this would be to merely require individuals to submit their work searches with their payment request each week. Obviously, the Texas Workforce Commission would have to verify each individual work search to determine the validity of each claim. This proposes the biggest challenge, allocating the resources to be able to verify the vast amount of work searches. However, just by merely requiring the submission of work searches would deter some individuals from committing fraud. Plus the retaining of benefits, which are currently going to fraudulent claims, would allow the state to put more money into resources for auditing more claims. I believe this would cause more individuals to actively pursue jobs or pursue continued education for their benefit. It is hard to encourage those routes now when one can collect money for a period of time with virtually no real imposed requirements.
Unemployment benefits are definitely needed within our state. There are obviously many situations that warrant for individuals to be compensated for lack of wages. I just believe that state spending should be allocated with great priority, and that is compromised by a lack of regulation on this category. Requiring more documentation for the receiving of benefits will not completely solve this concern, but I do believe it would be taking steps in the right direction. Unemployment spending is very minimal in regards to all welfare spending by the state. However, it is still a vast amount of money and needs to be more firmly regulated.
1 comment:
Mr. Endter's post "Unemployment Fraud" on his blog Capitol Politics is very well-written and brings up some good points. His argument is that Texas is very "relaxed" in the way we give out unemployment benefits to people that are currently out of work living in this state. Having close friends that make ends meet through unemployment benefits, I was surprised that Mr. Endter convinced me enough in his argument that I was able to see the other side of things. I believe very much that one of the most important jobs of the local and national government is to look after those not so well off, but Endter had a good point in that government support can absolutely be abused.
I personally did not know that there were so many steps to achieving unemployment benefits. However, as Endter points out, it is very easy for someone to manipulate the system, wasting time and dollars away particularly from the Texas Workforce Commission. The person trying to earn unemployment benefits must record that they are actively in search of work and the like, however no one from those places of work is ever contacted to affirm that someone came in looking for a job. Considering the economy is not at its best, it is silly for Texas to be tricked and fooled by people committing fraud through these unemployment benefits. My only critique is that for some receiving benefits, the only way they may be able to stay afloat is to commit fraud. Such busy people as a single mother with five kids who is trying to pursue her GED may not exactly have the time to go out and search for a job, but that doesn't mean she doesn't need help. If Texas could somehow find a way to balance its budget out so that people like that could also be included in the benefits (and fairly) that would be great.
Overall, I belive Mr. Endter did a fine job on his blog. Hopefully fraud is not rapid in the system of unemployment benefits, but one can only hope.
Post a Comment