NOVEMBER 9, 2009.Benefits Requests Jump

Program to Aid Jobless Displaced by Global Trade Is Flooded With Applications, Straining Small Labor Department Staff.

By IANTHE JEANNE DUGAN

A U.S. program that pays generous benefits to jobless people displaced by global trade has been swamped with applications in recent months, leaving thousands of potential beneficiaries in limbo.

About 3,000 applications representing hundreds of thousands of workers have flooded into the government since May, when the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program was expanded. The benefits include unemployment checks, retraining and 80% of the cost of medical insurance for workers whose jobs move overseas or are diminished by foreign competition.

Associated Press Job seekers hand in résumés at a job fair in Livonia, Mich., last week as the U.S. unemployment rate passed 10%.

The small staff at the Labor Department overseeing the program is straining to keep up. In six months, the number of applications has outpaced all of 2008, marking a record since the program was introduced in 1962 to protect workers while promoting global trade.

Early this year, 50,000 people were getting the benefits, barely 1% of jobless Americans. Now, some 1,500 applications are in the pipeline, representing as many as 150,000 people, based on the average size of applications last year. Not all of these will be approved, although the government has been validating a vast majority.

Howard Rosen, executive director of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Coalition, which helps workers apply for the program, says many employees are running out of unemployment insurance while waiting to find out if they qualify. "By law, they are supposed to make a decision within 45 days," says Mr. Rosen, who has waited five months for an answer on an application for a group of Idaho workers.

A Labor Department spokesman declined to comment.

The backlog underscores the complications of administering the nation's safety net to help the unemployed. The unemployment rate is 10.2%, the Labor Department announced Friday, just before President Barack Obama signed a measure adding 20 more weeks of federal jobless benefits to people who have been out of work for a long time. But the administration has been struggling to ensure that the benefits reach everybody who needs them.

Sweetened PotUnder the stimulus plan, the Trade Adjustment Assistance given to workers displaced by foreign trade was enhanced. Here are some of the benefits:
Training: As many as 156 weeks of training.
Trade Readjustment Allowances: As many as 156 weeks of cash payments for eligible workers enrolled in full-time training.
Health Coverage Tax Credit: Pays as much as 80% of health-insurance premiums.
Re-employment Trade Adjustment Assistance: A wage subsidy for as many as two years for workers over 50 who are re-employed at a reduced salary.
Job Search/Relocation Allowance: Helps pay the costs of a job search/relocation for a new job.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor
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Under the economic stimulus plan, Trade Adjustment Assistance was expanded. Those who qualified after May 18 get a tax credit covering 80% of medical benefits, up from 65%. Recipients get as many as 2½ years of unemployment checks, up from two years. Those over 50 years old can recoup as much as $12,000 in "lost" wages from the government, up from $10,000.

The program, traditionally reserved largely for manufacturing workers, also was broadened to include white-collar workers.

An April page-one article in The Wall Street Journal highlighted the uneven distribution of Trade Adjustment Assistance.

Increased awareness, rising unemployment and sweetened benefits caused a rush of applications from workers, unions and companies. The applications are reviewed by the Labor Department's "certifying officers," who investigate whether jobs were moved overseas or undermined by foreign trade. Certifying officer Elliott Kushner said in an interview this spring that the department contacts the company in question -- generally with a letter -- once an application has been received to gather information about what caused job losses. The officer then certifies companies that the department believes laid off people due to global trade, opening the door for individuals to apply, or the certification is denied. "Virtually anybody can qualify," Mr. Kushner said.

The agency recently hired 26 more investigators, for a total of 45, to review applications. In addition, it added two new certifying officers for a total of five. In October, the group got 240 applications and made decisions on 344.

Among applications in the pipeline is one from workers at Nukote International Inc., a printer-cartridge maker that laid off about 50 people in Rochester, N.Y., before filing for bankruptcy protection in June. Several Nukote workers say they believe their jobs were affected after a plant was opened in Mexico. A company spokesman says that while Nukote has manufacturing operations in Mexico, jobs weren't shifted there and the company's woes were unrelated to foreign trade.

Still, Michael Girvin, who was laid off in May as a project technician after 25 years, is hoping for the benefit. He is paying the entire $500-per-month health-insurance premium for him and his wife, using the $407 weekly unemployment check. "It would make a big difference in my life if the government helped pay for this," Mr. Girvin says.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125772203487737201.html