Please help repeal an unfair law

Illinois, Louisiana, Utah and Puerto Rico are the only places left in the United States that still deduct money from unemployment payments to older workers who receive social security. If this unfair “offset” law doesn’t apply to you now, it will.

For example, Illinois deducts $150 a week from my unemployment payment. If I were younger and didn't receive social security, I'd receive $385 a week. The money's already there, I just can't get it because of this law.

If you live in Illinois, please contact your state representative and state senator and let them know you want them to repeal this law that discriminates against older workers. (Scroll down for a sample message.) They need to hear from as many of their constituents as possible.

If you don't live in Illinois, please forward this information to anyone you know who does.

By the way, I won't benefit from the repeal. Darn it. It will come too late for me. But other people will.

I’ve included information about how to find the contact information for Illinois state representatives and state senators to the end of this message.

PLEASE forward any responses you get to me at nancy.solomon@att.net so we can keep track and -- hopefully -- add legislators to the message. And please contact me if you have any questions or need help.

Here’s the sample message. Feel free to use it as it is, modify it or simply use it for information.

Dear State (Senator xxx or Representative xxxx):

Illinois, Louisiana, Utah and Puerto Rico are the only four places left in the United States that penalize older workers by reducing their unemployment payments if they receive social security. This is simply unfair. I am asking you to help repeal the punitive Illinois offset law that discriminates against older workers.

Individual states determine eligibility for unemployment payments. Therefore, it’s up to the members of the Illinois General Assembly to repeal the law and stop punishing older workers.

It’s very doable. Since 2003, the legislatures in 19 states, the District of Colombia and the Virgin Islands have repealed similar unfair laws.

State Representative Sidney Mathias regularly introduces a bill to repeal the unemployment offset law in Illinois. He introduced HB0293 on January 23, 2009. It was sent to the Rules Committee to die.

Representatives Harry Osterman, Julie Hamos and Randy Ramey and Senators Heather Steans and John Millner recently agreed to support the repeal of the offset law the next time the bill is introduced. Deputy Republican Leader Representative Tim Schmitz has also pledged his assistance.

Under the current law, the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) gets to keep and use the money that is withheld from older workers. However, the offset law costs money to administer and reflects poorly on the department.

Furthermore, the notices from IDES are so convoluted and difficult to understand that many older workers believe they have been completely denied any unemployment payments at all. They don’t realize they could receive even reduced payments under the current law. They simply give up.

As you know, more and more older people must work. When older people lose their jobs, it usually takes them longer to find new ones. As a result, older workers need the full amount of their unemployment benefits as much – if not more – than younger workers.

Employers pay unemployment taxes for all their workers, no matter what their age. All workers should receive their full unemployment payments, no matter what their age.

Illinois AARP and the National Employment Law Project have agreed to help in the repeal effort. I hope you will, too.

Please let me know if I can count on you. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards,
(Your name, address, phone number and e-mail address go here.)

NOTE - To find your state representative and state senator, Google Illinois General Assembly or just go to http://www.ilga.gov/, click on "Legislator Lookup" under "Additional Resources" on the home page, click on the “By address” tab and enter your address.

Once you have their names, you can get your legislators’ contact information by either going back to the General Assembly site at http://www.ilga.gov/, click on the House and Senate members lists, click on the names of your legislators and that should take you to their Assembly Web pages. Their district and Springfield offices are usually on their pages.

OR -- just Google their names. If they have Web sites, the contact information should be there, too, including their e-mail addresses.

E-mail works very well, but you might have to contact your legislators' district or Springfield offices to get their e-mail addresses.

It’s not hard and it doesn't take long. If you need help, contact me at nancy.solomon@att.net.

Jeremy and Barbara

I need to tell you that my friends Jeremy Cole and Barbara Ford created the banned book event with me -- and were responsible for its success and longevity. I was responsible for not including press enter information.

About Press Enter

I think that people make a lot of assumptions about what other people know. For example, IT people seem to think everyone knows that you have to "press enter" so they don't bother to tell you to do that. However, I've found that most of us -- mostly me -- need to be told to press enter -- and what to expect when we do. I'm guilty of making assumptions, too. Some years ago, I put together a banned book read-out for the ACLU of Colorado. The mayor of Denver, sports stars, actors, all kinds of folks read from their favorite banned book at well-publicized events at the Tattered Cover Book Store and a big time book festival. Our booth was decked out with I Read Banned Books buttons, colorful and clever posters and lists of banned books from the American Library Association and actual banned books. I was feeling pretty proud of myself -- and self-righteous -- until an attendee asked me why I wanted to ban books. I looked at our display. Nowhere was there any flat out statement that we were opposed to banning books. Now, granted, the woman's analytical skills may have been more than inadequate, to say the least, but I didn't make it any easier for her. There was no press enter. Although the experience helped me become more aware of the need to supply press enter information, I'm still not always completely successful. But other folks are really bad at it. I'm on a quest to track down and share press enter information to know if Medicare with or without medigap or Medicare Advantage is better for me and why, how to tweet, how to set up an online portfolio and which service to choose, the best do-it-yourself Web site tool, if Firefox is interfering with my e-mail or does it just seem that way, who really needs long-term insurance, and lots of other living-in-the-real-world topics. Meanwhile, we all need to be cautious that some people may take this opportunity to try to sell us stuff. Try to resist.