January 5, 2022 The New Year brought a change in Washington law that directly affects at least 3.2 million people in our state—that is, everyone currently or potentially eligible for unemployment insurance benefits when they lose a job. The change, which kicked in January 2, 2022, is a new rule… Continue reading
In this issue: Policy Wins | Empowering Communities | Impact of Representation | Language Accessibility | Staff Spotlight | Summer Interns | Thanks from the Director ULP Logs Long-Sought Policy Wins During the Pandemic By Anne Paxton, Staff Attorney & Policy Director When ULP’s policy program, ambitiously named the Employment… Continue reading
Nov 1, 2021 Members of Congress concerned about serious gaps in the unemployment insurance system took a decisive step forward October 8 by introducing H.B. 5507 in the U.S. House of Representatives. This bill, sponsored by Donald Beyer, Jr. (D,VA), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D,NY) and other representatives, would help claimants in… Continue reading
October 13, 2021 OCLA-sponsored attorney team generously answers the call to help claimants with unemployment benefit appeals Throughout the pandemic, stories about the struggle that many jobless workers in Washington have had in securing unemployment benefits they temporarily needed for basic costs of living have been front-page news and exploded… Continue reading
In honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day on October 11th, the Unemployment Law Project wishes to acknowledge and commemorate the many indigenous peoples native to the land now known as Washington State and all over the world. We celebrate the histories of communities that lived here from time immemorial and honor… Continue reading
A new hours-of-availability rule that will help many Washington state unemployment benefits claimants became final July 26, 2021. Continue reading
June 10, 2021 Following a 15-month suspension of the requirement to search for jobs while receiving benefits, unemployment benefits claimants will once again need to conduct job searches starting July 4, the Employment Security Department (ESD) announced yesterday. (See https://esd.wa.gov/newsroom/job-search at ESD’s website.) In response to the pandemic, Governor Inslee… Continue reading
May 12, 2021 Washington state workers will have better assurance of equitable and effective processing of unemployment claims and transparent metrics of the performance of the Employment Security Department following the enactment of SB 5193, signed today by Governor Jay Inslee. The bill, actively backed by ULP throughout the 2021 legislative… Continue reading
[Sent via email on 3/27/21] Dear friend of ULP: The final hurdles have been crossed and SB 5193, an important bill, backed by ULP, which will improve many aspects of unemployment claims processing at the Employment Security Department (ESD), will be voted on at any time. Key committees in the House of… Continue reading
For more information from the Office of the Washington State Auditor (SAO), click here. For a list of Frequently Asked Questions regarding the data breach from the SAO, please click here. On February 1, the Washington state auditor announced that hackers had obtained more than a million unemployment benefit claimant… Continue reading
