With a record number of unemployment claims being filed, Senator Andre Jacque of De Pere has joined forces with Eau Claire Representative Treig Pronschinske to create a bill which aims to suspend the waiting period for collection of unemployment insurance benefits.
In a news release, the state legislators report that nearly 63,000 Wisconsinites filed unemployment claims in the past week, which is 12 times the number that filed in the same time frame last year.
Currently, a claimant must wait one week after becoming eligible to receive unemployment insurance benefits before the claimant may receive benefits for a week of unemployment.
This bill allows the Secretary of the Department of Workforce Development to suspend the application of the one-week waiting period for up to 52 weeks during a declared state of emergency as is needed to address the state of emergency.
Massachusetts recently approved the same suspension on a bi-partisan basis.
