More on Gulf Coast Unemployment Benefits -- $5044 per year?

This situation is more than merely desperate. It's likely to be fatal to some.

Sept. 28—Displaced workers hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina live in the three states with the lowest average weekly unemployment insurance (UI) benefit levels in the nation. That means workers in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi are receiving an average UI benefit that is only half the poverty line for a family of four.

Workers who are not eligible for UI qualify for federal Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA)—but those benefits are set at half a state’s average weekly UI benefit, which would be less than $100 a week in all three states, according to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“Louisiana’s (DUA) level of $97 per week is the equivalent of $5,044 a year. This provides income far below the poverty line even for a single individual, let alone for an unemployed worker trying to support a family,” according to the report, which notes that $97 a week is only 31 percent of the poverty line for a family of three.

Here's a link for people needing unemployment help.

Here's a link to ask congress to reinstate the prevailing wage law in those areas where the administration has rescinded the Davis-Bacon Act. Its more than shameful, it's barbaric that just at the time when workers need it most, their wages were cut by Bush's fiat.