Workers, employers fund unemployment insurance program: income helps many who are out of work; but limits apply.

• Author: Pounds, Nancy

Alaska's unemployment insurance system traces its roots to the Great Depression, but the system has evolved with technology changes and distinctive characteristics.

In 1935, U.S. policymakers created the unemployment insurance system, which required employers to pay insurance premiums into a fund and allowed temporarily unemployed workers to receive some continuing income.

"The nation was looking for ways to prevent another depression," said Bill Kramer, the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development's chief of unemployment insurance.

The goal was to sustain the economy and buoy unemployed workers, Kramer said.

Each state has developed its own unemployment insurance tax system with various benefit payment amounts. The Alaska Employment Security Act was adopted in 1937. Workers and their employers in Alaska pay into the unemployment fund via taxes, and the federal government funds administrative costs of states' unemployment programs. The maximum amount a worker pays via a tax on a paycheck is $140 annually, according to the state labor department.

Guidelines for Workers

Employees must meet certain requirements to receive unemployment insurance benefits. They must have received qualifying wages during a base period--or the first four of the five most recent completed quarters--and their employer must have paid unemployment taxes, Kramer said. Workers typically not covered by unemployment insurance include full-commission salespeople, elected and appointed officials, fishermen, unpaid family workers and the self-employed.

"In Alaska, we are one of three states where workers help fund benefits of the program," Kramer said.

Benefit payments are based on base period earnings, with a minimum of $44 a week up to a maximum of $248 per week, Kramer said.

Alaska is one of 13 states to provide additional benefits for temporarily unemployed workers with dependents, according to the state labor department's Unemployment Insurance Actuarial Study and Financial Handbook 2004. Dependent payments can be an additional $24 weekly per child up to $72.

In 2004, the program paid $12.9 million in dependent benefits to 18,839 people receiving regular benefits. About 38 percent of all claimants received dependent benefits, state labor department research shows.

Workers must file unemployment claims every two weeks, listing each week of unemployment, Kramer said. Benefit checks are issued every two weeks. Unemployed Alaskans are eligible to receive benefits...