Cuomo announces increase in New York’s unemployment benefits

New York state’s maximum and minimum payouts for weekly unemployment-insurance benefits will increase on Oct. 6.

The minimum payment will rise from $64 to $100, while the maximum payout will increase from $405 to $420.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo made the announcement in a news release his office distributed on Wednesday, citing Cuomo’s reforms to the New York’s unemployment-insurance system.

 “This state’s unemployment-insurance system has been broken for far too long, starving deserving New Yorkers of sufficient benefits and saddling businesses with billions of dollars of debt,” Cuomo said in the release. “The rate increase that resulted from our reforms … provide[s] a boost to job-seeking New Yorkers and grant relief to businesses so they can focus on job creation and growth.”

For years, New York’s unemployment-insurance trust fund, which pays the benefits, did not have enough funds to pay for claims that unemployed workers had filed, Cuomo’s office said.

As a result, the state borrowed funds from the federal government to cover the difference and employers “were burdened” with paying back a $3.5 billion debt with interest, it added.

Cuomo in March 2013 signed into law a “major reform” to the state’s unemployment-insurance system.

It included paying off the federal-government debt sooner, increasing fraud-prevention measures and penalties, and making sure the fund had enough money to pay claimant benefits and increase weekly benefits for the first time in 14 years, according to the governor’s office.

Since the state implemented Cuomo’s measures, it has cut the trust-fund debt “in half” and the state estimates the legislation will save businesses $400 million.

The measure that accelerates the payment of debt will ultimately “help stabilize” the unemployment-insurance trust fund, making it more “sustainable and predictable,” Cuomo’s office contended.

As the trust-fund balance increases, employer-contribution rates will decrease, it added.

The New York State Department of Labor uses a formula that takes into account what unemployed individuals earned from recent employers to determine claimants’ weekly benefit, according to Cuomo’s office.

After they file a claim, they are notified of their rate by a monetary-benefit determination.

The state Labor Department will also send a second notice to claimants who are eligible for the benefit.

Under unemployment-insurance reform, the maximum benefit rate for claimants will increase annually until it reaches 50 percent of the average weekly wage in New York.

The minimum will remain at $100, Cuomo’s office said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com