LANSING, Mich — A Democratic-backed package of bills that would expand unemployment benefits for Michiganders has passed in both the Michigan House and Senate this week and will now head to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's desk.
Democrats said the bills were aimed at modifying and expanding unemployment benefits by increasing the duration and amount of benefits received and providing more transparency to the public.
The five-bill package passed primarily along party lines with mostly Democratic support.
Now that the bills have made their way through both chambers, Gov. Whitmer will need to sign the legislation before it becomes law, which she is expected to do so.
Here's what each of the individual bills aims to do once becoming law:
Senate Bill 40, first introduced in January of 2023, is the major bill in this five bill package that aims to expand unemployment benefits for Michiganders over the next several years.
This bill would make sweeping changes to the amount of unemployment benefits Michiganders would receive. First, the legislation would lengthen the amount of time a person is allowed to be on unemployment benefits from 20 weeks to 26 weeks.
The new legislation would also increase the weekly benefit from $362, plus $6 for each dependent, to $614, plus $26 for each dependent, incrementally over the next three years. Here's how that would look:
- Beginning on Jan. 1, 2025: Maximum weekly benefit becomes $446 plus $12.66 for each dependent.
- Beginning on Jan. 1, 2026: Maximum weekly benefit becomes $530 plus $19.33 for each dependent.
- Beginning on Jan. 1, 2027: Maximum weekly benefit becomes $614 plus $26 for each dependent.
Beginning on Dec. 31, 2027, the State Treasurer would increase the maximum weekly benefit rate and the unemployment benefit rate for each dependent by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) annually.
Senate Bill 962 would change the number of hardship waiver applications that the Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) can consider when waiving recovery of improperly paid benefits. The legislation also specifies that a claimant is actively seeking work by completing qualifying activities at least three times a week.
This bill also cleans up some legal issues with claims, allowing a judge to consolidate hearings and banning the UIA from pursing recovery of improperly paid benefits until the UIA reviews the claim for all possible waivers.
Senate Bill 975 would amend the Michigan Employment Security Act to allow a victim of domestic violence who left their work voluntarily because of the domestic violence to still be eligible for unemployment benefits. The bill also would make employees who voluntarily reduce their work to below full-time levels considered to have left work without good cause.
Senate Bill 976 would amend the Michigan Employment Security Act to add new requirements and exemptions for how the UIA handles information and calculates costs. The bill aims to give more public access to information held by the UIA.
Among the new requirements in the bill, the UIA would be required to comply with federal information disclosure requirements and have information available for claimants, claimant employers and courts.
The bill also blocks Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests of any records of the methods used by the UIA to identify and investigate fraudulent claims.
Senate Bill 981 aims to bring more transparency to the UIA by allowing for more documents to be subject to FOIA and ending a policy of destroying original documents that were copied and preserved.
Analysis of the bill package in the Committee on Labor determined that the increase in benefits would still be covered through the Unemployment Insurance Trust Balance until 2027.
"For the past year, $763.1 million was paid out in UI benefits. Had the maximum weekly benefits been in place, the total amount paid out could have been $940.1 million for the 2025 maximum, $1.1 billion for the 2026 maximum, and $1.3 billion for the 2027 maximum. For the 2027 maximum, this would have been greater than the total amount of revenue that had been received, which was $1.2 billion and would have reduced the Unemployment Insurance Trust Balance," the summary concluded.
Analysis of the unemployment benefit time expansion was also conducted by the committee.
"For the past year, $763.1 million was paid out in UI benefits. Had the total number of allowable weeks been 26 weeks, the total amount of payouts could have been between $839.4 million and $867.6 million, an additional $76.3 million to $104.5 million. This amount would have remained under the $1.2 billion in UI tax collections and the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund balance would have increased," the summary concluded.
