Pentagon spends nearly $1B a year on unemployment

[unhappycamper]

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/mar/15/pentagon-spends-nearly-1b-a-year-on-unemployment/?st



FILE - In this July 19, 2012, file photo, military job seekers line up to speak to law enforcement recruiters during a job fair Thursday, July 19, 2012, in Irving, Texas. Even as it faces budget cuts and forced employee furloughs, the Pentagon is spending nearly a $1 billion a year on a program that sends unemployment checks to former troops who left the military voluntarily. But eligibility for the military compensation requires only that a person served in uniform and was honorably discharged.

Pentagon spends nearly $1B a year on unemployment
By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press 1:05 a.m.March 15, 2013

WASHINGTON — Even as it faces budget cuts and forced employee furloughs, the Pentagon is spending nearly a $1 billion a year on a program that sends unemployment checks to former troops who left the military voluntarily.

Unemployment Compensation for Ex-Servicemembers, a Labor Department program, is a spinoff of the federal-state unemployment insurance program. The Labor Department says the overall program is meant to help "eligible workers who are unemployed through no fault of their own" such as during layoffs.

But eligibility for the military compensation requires only that a person served in uniform and was honorably discharged. In other words, anyone who joins the military and serves for several years, then decides not to re-enlist, is potentially eligible for what could amount to more than 90 weeks of unemployment checks.

The program's cost rose from $300 million in 2003 to $928 million last year.

[JayhawkSD]

1. This is awesome.

I wish it was more widely publicized.

Kind of weird calling it "unemployment" though, since that is not normally available to people who "left voluntarily." I wish they had a better name for it, maybe something like "transition pay."