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Self Employment Assistance
Purpose
Self-Employment Assistance offers dislocated workers the opportunity for
early re-employment. The program is designed to encourage and enable unemployed
workers to create their own jobs by starting their own small businesses. Under
these programs, States can pay a self-employed allowance, instead of regular
unemployment insurance benefits, to help unemployed workers while they are
establishing businesses and becoming self-employed. Participants receive weekly
allowances while they are getting their businesses off the ground.
This is a voluntary program for States and, to date, fewer than10 States have
established and currently operate Self Employment Assistance programs.
Eligibility
Generally in order to receive these benefits, an individual must first be eligible to
receive regular unemployment insurance under the State law. Individuals who have
been permanently laid off from their previous jobs and are identified (through
a States' profiling system) as likely to exhaust regular unemployment
benefits are eligible to participate in the program.
Individuals may be eligible even if they are engaged full-time in self-employment activities -
including entrepreneurial training, business counseling, and technical
assistance.
Benefits
Self-employment allowances are the same weekly amounts as the worker's
regular unemployment insurance benefits. Participants work full-time on
starting their business instead of looking for wage and salary jobs.
Filing A Claim
You should contact the State Unemployment Insurance agency as soon as
possible after becoming unemployed. At the time you file your claim you should
ask whether a Self Employment Assistance program operates in your State.
Click here for more Unemployment Fact Sheets
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