Michigan extends unemployment benefits for some

Tribune Staff Report

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By SBT 24/7 News

Story Created: Feb 17, 2009 at 3:13 AM EST

Story Updated: Mar 4, 2009 at 3:21 PM EST

Exhausted your state unemployment insurance benefits and your two federal extensions? If so and you worked in Michigan, you still may be eligible for 13 additional weeks of unemployment compensation.

"Michigan is now eligible to pay extended benefits through the federal-state Extended Benefits program,” said Stephen Geskey, director of Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency. “Citizens who established a claim for state unemployment benefits on or after Feb. 3, 2008, may qualify for the new Extended Benefits program once they exhaust their federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation.’’

To qualify, workers must:

  • Be unemployed or underemployed.

  • Have an unemployment benefit year that ends on or after Jan. 31, 2009. A benefit year is a 52-week period starting from the week in which a worker applies for state unemployment benefits.

  • Have exhausted all of their state and federal unemployment benefits and federal extensions and cannot establish a new claim.

  • Perform a work search and list the employers contacted each week. As evidence, workers must supply the names of employers they have contacted over the prior two weeks, as well as the names of the individuals they contacted at each business, their method of contact, the type of work they sought and the results of the contact.

    The week ending Jan. 31 was the first week for payouts of Extended Benefits. Once it’s triggered, it remains in effect at least 13 weeks.

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