Iowa lawmakers advance bill restricting unemployment benefits

Iowa lawmakers have advanced a bill to tighten the rules for people who receive unemployment benefits.

The Legislature already passed limits last year on how long a person who’s out of work can receive aid, and under the new measure, people would be required to do more to get it. Senate File 1159 would mandate unemployed Iowans to complete “more aggressive” job searches, with up to a half-dozen applications every week, depending on how many jobs are available.

Sen. Nate Boulton, D-Des Moines, thinks the measure would be bad for employees and the companies they go to work for.

“And telling people they need to accept positions or risk losing their unemployment benefits; you’re putting pressure on people to take jobs they have zero intention of staying into for any long period of time,” Boulton contended.

The bill would also eliminate waivers from current Iowa law allowing people in seasonal jobs to use unemployment during layoff periods before they are rehired. Those jobs have typically been in construction and agriculture. Critics of the bill say it will make it even harder to fill seasonal jobs, and make Iowa less friendly overall to potential employers.

This is the second move to tighten the rules for people seeking unemployment benefits. Iowa lawmakers have already cut the time someone can stay on unemployment from 26 weeks to 16, and tightened the requirement to accept what the state called “suitable work.” Boulton argued such changes force people into jobs for which they may be underqualified or overqualified.

“It’s just another step in the misguided effort to get more people off of unemployment and into work, but not connecting the dots to work that makes sense for both the employer and the employee,” Boulton asserted.

The measure moves next to the full Senate.