NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document
The State must have assurances that the Federal Government will continue
to allow workers ineligible for State UI benefits to apply for benefits under
the Disaster Unemployment Assistance program, which provides benefits to
self-employed individuals, spouses who have lost the major breadwinner for
a household, and others.
In addition, it is critical that the Federal Government act to provide extended
UI benefits beyond the 26 week period provided for under normal UI, and
that it fund such benefits out of the Federal budget.
➢ Welfare-to-Work Funding. Efforts should be made to further streamline
the Federal requirements governing individual recipient eligibility in the
Welfare-to-Work Block Grant. This program was intended to target hard-to-
serve welfare recipients with multiple barriers to employment. Over the last
two years, Congress has removed some of the restrictions on the use of the
money because many states have been unable to spend the funding due to
the narrow parameters originally established in the program.
New York has received approximately $187 million in Federal Welfare-to-
Work funds over the two-year grant period. However, due to restrictive
spending requirements, nearly $125 million in job training and workforce
development funding remains unused. In light of the events of September
11`h, New York would like to access its share of this funding as a true block
grant, by using the funds to provide employment services to whoever is in
need of assistance, without regard to the eligibility restrictions that currently
remain in the Federal law.
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NYC-WTC 000136773
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