Child care fall through? You might be able to get unemployment in WA

Apr. 13—OLYMPIA — As the economy clambers out of the COVID-19 pandemic, state lawmakers are trying to allow more workers to get jobless benefits — including those who have lost child care.

Washingtonians who quit a job can qualify for unemployment benefits if they quit for a reason specified in law as a good cause, including concerns about workplace safety issues or illegal activities.

Under House Bill 1106, which passed the Senate last week, a person could get benefits for additional reasons, including a significant change in working hours or loss of child care.

The pandemic exposed the difficulties that many working parents face. But lawmakers began working before that to allow people to get jobless benefits if they quit for lack of child care, said Sen. Rebecca Saldaña, D-Seattle.

While Washington's unemployment system is stable and provides relatively good benefits, "not everyone has benefited from it," Saldaña said.

The bill drew objections from some senators who said that the burden would fall on employers to pay for it, and that the legislation wouldn't solve the underlying problem — the lack of child care in Washington.

Supporters said the bill would form a needed safety net for the relatively small number of people who quit their jobs because of a child care or elder care issue as lawmakers work to shore up the state's child care system.

During an hourlong floor debate, the Senate opted to put an expiration date on a provision of the bill that would allow benefits for people who lost child care or care for a vulnerable adult.

The care provision would be allowed for five years starting in 2024, rather than becoming a permanent fixture of the unemployment insurance system. Lawmakers could extend it in the future.

Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, introduced an amendment that would have removed the care provisions. He pointed to the state's existing paid family and medical leave program and to new regulations lawmakers have placed on child care providers in recent years.

"The lack of child care is on us," King said. "It's on the Legislature."

The Employment Security Department estimates that 328 additional claims per year would be permitted for child care or elder care issues.

Since the federal government requires that a person getting unemployment benefits be ready and available to work, a person who quit because they lacked child care couldn't access benefits until they were available to work again.

In other words, you could qualify once you have resolved your child care situation and can go back to work, or if you've quit your job but are available to work different hours than your former employer could accommodate.

The legislation also requires that the Employment Security Department report back to the Legislature, and Saldaña said legislators were interested in how many people make use of the new expansion, whether the agency's estimates were correct, and for what period of time people make use of the benefits.

Then the Legislature can review it and decide whether to keep the child care aspect of the expanded eligibility for the program before it expires in July 2029.

A worker who quits due to a significant change in working hours would affect what's called an employer's experience rating, which in turn affects how much an employer pays into the unemployment insurance system. The idea being, the less an employer's former workers draw on unemployment, the less the employer has to pay.

But the costs for the other provisions in the bill — for instance, an employee who quits because they can't find child care and can't continue to work at their current job, or an employee who quits because their minor child relocates to another state — would be spread out among all employers in the state and not impact an individual employer's rates.

Sen. Phil Fortunato, R-Auburn, introduced an amendment that would pay for the program through the state's general fund rather than through the unemployment insurance fund, arguing that the cost of the expansion shouldn't be borne by employers. But that change wasn't incorporated into the bill the Senate passed.

Altogether, the expansions in the bill are expected to allow an additional 700 claims, which would cost about $6 million a year — which supporters say is a small percentage of the $3.2 billion unemployment insurance trust fund.

Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, acknowledged that the bill "may not be the perfect solution."

"We have hundreds of people with this crisis every year and we need to help them.... It's a good effort to provide benefits in a temporary way for a few years," Keiser said on the Senate floor.

Since the bill was changed in the Senate, it needs agreement from the House to get to Gov. Jay Inslee's desk.

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