Review plantext I and find a piece of evidence that defends or attacks its topicality. Make sure you include your own analysis following the card (cited).
Green receives government assistance. There's about $400 a month in food stamps for her girls, 22-month-old Makayla, 7-year-old Jada and 13-year-old Candace. Section 8 pays for her apartment and part of her staggering utility bill.
Overweight, Green vows that this month is the month her diet and exercise program will begin in earnest. She takes a handful of pills daily for high blood pressure and diabetes.
And for many people, including most who have never been poor, that's all they need to know about Green and her family.
The thinking goes like this: Green made poor choices and now, she's paying for them. No, correction, taxpayers are paying for Green's poor choices.
For those whose safety nets have safety nets, it can be difficult to muster any compassion for Green.
After all, no one made her get pregnant. No one made her drop out of high school. No one made her have three children, all by different fathers, only one of whom is involved in his daughter's life.
But Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., were he alive today, might see Green's fate a bit differently. He would have less judgment for how Green got where she is. He would want to know how America planned to help Green and the other 35 million Americans who live in poverty.
When King was assassinated, he was in the midst of planning a Poor People's Campaign, an effort that was unpopular even among his civil-rights compatriots. The campaign, which culminated posthumously with a monthlong settlement camp of poor Americans on the National Mall in Washington, demanded that the government provide more jobs with a decent wage, better unemployment insurance and higher-quality public education to prepare children for the workforce.
"Instead of spending $35 billion every year to fight an unjust, ill-considered war in Vietnam and $20billion to put a man on the moon, we need to put God's children on their own two feet," King said on March 18, 1968, in speech to striking Memphis sanitation workers.
But to be fair, poverty 40 years ago didn't look like poverty today. Then, poverty was starvation, homes with rodent and insect infestation but no heating or indoor plumbing.
And that's not to say that there aren't poor people in America living in such situations. But Green and her family do have food, shelter and clothing. There is just little room in her budget for extras and certainly no money for emergencies.
Even the $6 it cost for her daughter Jada's field trip to Pink Palace is a strain.
A former resident of the Dixie Homes housing project, she moved into her duplex in July and has received job training through Memphis Hope. For her perfect attendance and stellar performance in a job-training class, she got a computer, which she used to make fliers for the residential-cleaning business she hopes to start. http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/mar/30/povertys-face-80-percent-of-poor-americans-work/ Analaysis: I chose this card because it shows that americans are poor becsue they are not being paid enough.
URBAN HOUSING IS A SOCIAL SERVICE http://www.samaritanguide.com/guide/6013/overview/ Urban Housing Solutions, Inc. provides affordable rental housing and social services for low-income residents of Nashville. Many of our residents have special needs--the formerly homeless, the mentally ill, people in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, those living with HIV/AIDS, and the physically disabled.
This card specifically says that when we construct new urban housing, it is a social service for unemployed, and impoverished people(under every definition)
A. Interpretation- the imposhed people the Aff talks about are not improvised http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/poverty Poverty-The state of being poor; lack of the means of providing material needs or comforts.
This T is kinda shaky, it’s a cross-x t. ask the Aff the condition of the people they are helping.
increase: addition: a quantity that is added; "there was an addition to property taxes this year"; "they recorded the cattle's gain in weight over a period ...
what i have learn is that the plan is to unemployed for the building of low-income urban housing. wich is making new sytems
Poverty: Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase social services for persons living in poverty in the United States.
Social workers failed Reena Virk by putting her in foster care without confirming whether her allegations of family abuse were true, says a report done for the B.C. Coroners Service. Reena, 14, was beaten to death in 1997 by two teens she met through the foster care system. Her family says she might never have met her killers if she had been left in her home.
Reena told social workers she was physically, mentally, and sexually abused at home. She told horrific tales of being hit with a hammer, tied to a chair and threatened with a hot barbecue tool.
Vivian Gamor was acting increasingly strangely towards her children before she bludgeoned 10-year-old Antoine with a claw hammer and suffocated daughter Kenniece, three, with cling film in January last year.
The inquiry into their deaths concluded that mental health staff should have taken more account of Gamor's bizarre behaviour, including her claims that she was not their real mother and that Jesus was her twin.
Jimi Ogunkoya, the children's father, had warned social services about his former partner in the past.
so the resolution says that they would substancially increase social services although now they are failing so the resolution is flawed.
Despite current changes in perspectives and discourses within state social areas, Argentine social policy does not seem to have experienced much change compared with the ones of the 90s. This paper addresses the factors that account for this continuity. Focusing on the examination of new socio-economic perspectives within state, I will contend that not only structural constraints characterizing the current organizational and technical features of state, but also cultural imaginaries and political practices -on the part of both state agents and the social groups to whom the policies are addressed- are inherited conditions that cannot be easily dismantled with discursive emphasis. Moreover, while these conditions do not obstruct the introduction of changes in the scope and design of targeted assistance-based policies, they establish important restrictions to a real socio-economic turn in the conceptual orientation of social policies
this card is talking about some of the policies for T
T: "Social services cover a wide array of service organizations (public, for-profit private, and non-profit private), including institutions providing welfare payments, individual and family social services, job training and vocational rehabilitation services, child day care services, residential care, and other social services (such as advocacy groups, community action and development groups, and councils for social agencies)."
Analysis: Okay so the main thing I take out of there is the part where it says "residential care". This is topical because were building low income housing.
Don't think its a good card but it is what i could find for what I know about T
Timothy Prickett Morgan. http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/04/03/us_march_2009_jobs_report/ The monthly batch of bad news came out of the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning, which reported that companies in the United States chopped 663,000 jobs from their payrolls in March, boosting the unemployment rate to 8.5 per cent. Since the recession started in December 2007, U.S. companies have let go of 5.1 million people, with 3.3 million of them - nearly two-thirds of the total - coming in the past five months. The good news is that the numbers hit expectations and that the job losses reported in February remained unchanged at 651,000. But the bad news is that the figures for January, which had already been revised upwards from 598,000 to 655,000, have been revised again to a truly stunning 741,000 lost jobs.
Samana Siddiqi http://www.soundvision.com/Info/poor/statistics.asp According to the US Census Bureau, 35.9 million people live below the poverty line in America http://www.thefreedictionary.com/substantial of a considerable size or value
This T is sketchy but it could work if revised. The analysis here is that there are 35.9 million people below the poverty line but the unemployment rate is only 741,000 lost jobs. The argument made is that substantial means a lot or a considerable amount and this plan isn’t helping the majority of people below the poverty line.
Def 1-Poverty is income, unemployment is employment status Social Policy Research Center 2002 http://www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/dp/DP118.pdf ------------------------------------------------ It is also important to recognise that while poverty is generally measured using income (which is a flow variable, normally measured on an annual basis in poverty studies), unemployment is a stock variable that records labour force status at a point in time.
and def-2 poverty is not the same as unemployment Social Policy Research Center 2002 http://www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/dp/DP118.pdf ----------------------------------------------- Reference has already been made to the fact that one reason why unemployment may not be associated with poverty concerns the possibility that other family members may have income sufficient to keep the family above the poverty line, even when one of its (adult) members is unemployed. ----------------------------------------------- B-violation the aff only gives social services to the unemployed, not the impovered
rpatin: That evidence is alright, but try to find something more related to housing projects. I doubt that people are going to be disputing what a poor person is, but rather is the program a social service.
c_burba: Nice job. See what else you can find to bolster your point. One piece of evidence from one site isn't always enough.
DMartin: I like the set up, but you don't explain why we are creating and why it isn't an increase. I found this evidence with a simple search on Google:
Government assistance already in place to help companies that hire unemployed, plan expands on this
Ellen Sueda, GJ Stillson MacDonnell, Chadwick M. Graham and Patricia A. Haim, February 24, 2009 (Ellen Sueda, GJ Stillson MacDonnell, Chadwick M. Graham and Patricia A. Haim, Business and Tax Attorneys, Mondaq, " United States: Besides COBRA: What Does The Stimulus Package Have For Employers," February 24, 2009 http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=74924)
While most of the media and commentary has been focused on the COBRA subsidy in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA or "the Act") signed by President Obama on February 17, there are additional provisions that employers should be aware of including, new tax credits, changes in unemployment benefits, limits on executive compensation and limits on the availability of HB-1 visas. Each of these provisions are discussed in more detail below. For information regarding the COBRA subsidy see Littler's ASAP The Stimulus Package: An In-Depth Look at the New COBRA Subsidy in the ARRA. The Employment Tax Provisions State Unemployment Insurance
The ARRA provides significant funds to states to expand the amount of unemployment benefits, eligible circumstances qualifying for benefits and the duration of unemployment benefits under the "modernization" provisions of the stimulus law. From a financial perspective, as a result of these changes, employers are likely to be paying higher unemployment insurance taxes as well as face increasing scrutiny with respect to their utilization of independent contractors as the government enforcement agencies will have more resources to process and audit worker status claims.
Under the terms of the ARRA, the previously expanded 33-week limit for unemployment benefits scheduled to end on March 31 is extended to December 31, 2009. Additionally, the Act increases the current weekly benefits by $25. The law further requires participating state programs that want to maximize receipt of modernization funds to modify eligibility for benefits by choosing two of the four following options:
* Allow individuals to be eligible even if only seeking part-time work; * Allow individuals to be eligible if employment separation was for compelling family reasons (i.e., domestic violence, family member illness or need to relocate because of spouse's change in job); * Allow individuals to be eligible if participating in a state-approved training program; or * Increase the allowance for dependents if the state already provides such an allowance.
This increase in benefits coupled with the current high levels of unemployment are likely to result in employers being pushed into the highest unemployment tax brackets for the next three or more years.
From a worker's perspective, unemployment insurance benefits have been taxable income to such recipients for at least federal tax purposes. Under the ARRA, the first $2,500 received will not be subject to federal income taxes during 2009.
For the purposes of calculating benefits and eligibility, states typically use a 12-month "base period" that ends typically three to six months before unemployment begins. For example, if an employee is terminated in February 2009, the "base period" would end September 30, 2008. Under previous law upwards of six months of final wages would not generally be considered in setting either benefits or eligibility. As part of the modernization incentives, state laws need to provide either that the base period include the most recently completed calendar quarter before the start of the benefit year or provide that, in the case of an individual who would not otherwise be eligible under state law, eligibility shall be determined using the base period that includes the most recently completed calendar quarter.
In addition to potentially requiring state-level legislation to implement these changes, a state's computer systems and administrative processes will also require modification. This is likely to lead to much confusion in making both eligibility and benefit determinations. Employers will have to remain vigilant to avoid excessive benefit charges.
From the employer's perspective, this shift may increase benefits charged, and therefore, the employer's liabilities under the unemployment system. Additionally, these added modernization funds are likely to fund further state-level staffing resources to audit more actively the status of independent contractors as well as process unemployment claims. It is anticipated that both the enhanced and extended benefit as well as the increased state resources will increase potentially significantly the number of misclassification audits conducted by the state agencies. In anticipation of such developments employers should conduct an internal review of the utilization of independent contractors. Income Tax Payroll Holiday
Embedded in the law is a special provision known as "Making Work Pay" credit. It allows for an adjustment of the federal income tax withholding tables to potentially allow single and couples filing jointly (within certain incomes) to reduce the amount of income taxes withheld by up to $400 for singles and $800 for couples in 2009 and 2010. These phased out "credits" are available only to individuals earning $97,000 or less per year or $190,000 for couples.
In order to implement these changes, the IRS will be issuing revised withholding tables that will need to be fed into an employer's payroll system. As it is anticipated that this process will not be implemented immediately such tables will be adjusted to reflect prospectively credits retroactive to January 1, 2009. Without such adjustment, the average weekly income tax savings is expected to be $7.69 per week for an individual but with this catch-up provision it is likely to be between $12 and $14 a week in 2009.
It is anticipated that in addition to adjusting the payroll tables, additional paperwork/worksheets will be required from employees. Employers do not appear to have any choice but to make adjusted tables available and process paperwork even though employees have the option to take such credit as part of the filing of their 2009 and 2010 tax returns. Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC)
The WOTC, a voluntary program by which employers earn a tax credit for hiring individuals from one or more specific groups, is expanded under ARRA. Under the new law, employers are eligible to earn a tax credit for hiring unemployed veterans and disconnected youths after December 31, 2008. A person is considered an unemployed veteran under this Act if he or she has been discharged or released from active duty in the Armed Forces at any time during the five-year period ending on the hiring date, and is in receipt of unemployment compensation under state or federal law for at least four weeks during the one-year period preceding the date of hire. A "disconnected youth" is considered one who is between the ages of 16 and 25, is not regularly attending school or employed during the six-month period preceding the hiring date, and is not "readily employable by reason of lacking a sufficient number of basic skills."
esmith: Explain what you meant with this T. Are you saying that the unemployed are actually not going to me impoverished?
AMartin: So you are purposing that the plan would help the companies that build houses outside the United States? Give me some examples of companies that doe this.
hlarso: The definition is alright, but again, defining people as being poor, how does that prove that our plan is needed and topical?
s_Elliot: So you are saying that the plan is an addition to social service programs? See what else you can find to support this point.
A_merca: Topicality is not about proving that the resolution is flawed, but that the plan is flawed in some manner.
Nhanco: Nice effort, but this talks about Argentine. See if you can find something dealing with the United State's policies.
cvenem: That is a decent card and I am pretty sure you are right that housing would count as Residential Care. Try looking into social services on Google, and see what you find.
Nsteele: You are thinking, and that is good. I think you are misreading the evidence though. The figure you quote is the number of people who lost their jobs in just January. The unemployment rate is 8.5 percent, as per your evidence. If you do a quick calculation and assume that the workforce is around 135.8 million people and the unemployment rate is 8.5 percent, that means that nearly 11.7 million people are unemployed. I think that the plan would provide substantial assistance. Nice job, that evidence will work well to defend the plan.
Dvuong: Nice job. Can you post a little but more of that evidence? Short snippets can sometimes mean the evidence is taken out of context. Thanks!
Everyone: All-in-all, you guys are thinking and trying to learn. That is most important part. Keep it up!
But you can't raise a family on $800 a month, so
ReplyDeleteGreen receives government assistance. There's about $400 a month in food stamps for her girls, 22-month-old Makayla, 7-year-old Jada and 13-year-old Candace. Section 8 pays for her apartment and part of her staggering utility bill.
Overweight, Green vows that this month is the month her diet and exercise program will begin in earnest. She takes a handful of pills daily for high blood pressure and diabetes.
And for many people, including most who have never been poor, that's all they need to know about Green and her family.
The thinking goes like this: Green made poor choices and now, she's paying for them. No, correction, taxpayers are paying for Green's poor choices.
For those whose safety nets have safety nets, it can be difficult to muster any compassion for Green.
After all, no one made her get pregnant. No one made her drop out of high school. No one made her have three children, all by different fathers, only one of whom is involved in his daughter's life.
But Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., were he alive today, might see Green's fate a bit differently. He would have less judgment for how Green got where she is. He would want to know how America planned to help Green and the other 35 million Americans who live in poverty.
When King was assassinated, he was in the midst of planning a Poor People's Campaign, an effort that was unpopular even among his civil-rights compatriots. The campaign, which culminated posthumously with a monthlong settlement camp of poor Americans on the National Mall in Washington, demanded that the government provide more jobs with a decent wage, better unemployment insurance and higher-quality public education to prepare children for the workforce.
"Instead of spending $35 billion every year to fight an unjust, ill-considered war in Vietnam and $20billion to put a man on the moon, we need to put God's children on their own two feet," King said on March 18, 1968, in speech to striking Memphis sanitation workers.
But to be fair, poverty 40 years ago didn't look like poverty today. Then, poverty was starvation, homes with rodent and insect infestation but no heating or indoor plumbing.
And that's not to say that there aren't poor people in America living in such situations. But Green and her family do have food, shelter and clothing. There is just little room in her budget for extras and certainly no money for emergencies.
Even the $6 it cost for her daughter Jada's field trip to Pink Palace is a strain.
A former resident of the Dixie Homes housing project, she moved into her duplex in July and has received job training through Memphis Hope. For her perfect attendance and stellar performance in a job-training class, she got a computer, which she used to make fliers for the residential-cleaning business she hopes to start.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/mar/30/povertys-face-80-percent-of-poor-americans-work/
Analaysis: I chose this card because it shows that americans are poor becsue they are not being paid enough.
URBAN HOUSING IS A SOCIAL SERVICE
ReplyDeletehttp://www.samaritanguide.com/guide/6013/overview/
Urban Housing Solutions, Inc. provides affordable rental housing and social services for low-income residents of Nashville. Many of our residents have special needs--the formerly homeless, the mentally ill, people in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, those living with HIV/AIDS, and the physically disabled.
This card specifically says that when we construct new urban housing, it is a social service for unemployed, and impoverished people(under every definition)
A interpretation
ReplyDeleteRandom House Dictionary 2009.
to make greater, as in number, size, strength, or quality; augment; add to: to increase taxes.
B violation. the plan is creating not increasing
A. Interpretation- the imposhed people the Aff talks about are not improvised
ReplyDeletehttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/poverty
Poverty-The state of being poor; lack of the means of providing material needs or comforts.
This T is kinda shaky, it’s a cross-x t. ask the Aff the condition of the people they are helping.
can you say extra T!!
ReplyDeletechris made a novee mistake!
A. Intrpretation- In means within
www.dictionary.com (sorry)
"in-Within the limits, bounds, or area of"
B. Violation-my opponent doesn't specify that the plan acts within the united states
put in some generic voters, and sneak in a extra T independant voter, and read like 9 extra T bad stnds and vtrs in the block
Poverty-The state of being poor; lack of the means of providing material needs or comforts.
ReplyDeleteThis proves that we need the social programs to get these people out of poverty… by our def.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/poverty
http://www.urban.org/publications/310164.html
ReplyDeleteincrease: addition: a quantity that is added; "there was an addition to property taxes this year"; "they recorded the cattle's gain in weight over a period ...
what i have learn is that the plan is to unemployed for the building of low-income urban housing. wich is making new sytems
Poverty: Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase social services for persons living in poverty in the United States.
ReplyDeleteSocial workers failed Reena Virk by putting her in foster care without confirming whether her allegations of family abuse were true, says a report done for the B.C. Coroners Service.
Reena, 14, was beaten to death in 1997 by two teens she met through the foster care system. Her family says she might never have met her killers if she had been left in her home.
Reena told social workers she was physically, mentally, and sexually abused at home. She told horrific tales of being hit with a hammer, tied to a chair and threatened with a hot barbecue tool.
Vivian Gamor was acting increasingly strangely towards her children before she bludgeoned 10-year-old Antoine with a claw hammer and suffocated daughter Kenniece, three, with cling film in January last year.
The inquiry into their deaths concluded that mental health staff should have taken more account of Gamor's bizarre behaviour, including her claims that she was not their real mother and that Jesus was her twin.
Jimi Ogunkoya, the children's father, had warned social services about his former partner in the past.
so the resolution says that they would substancially increase social services although now they are failing so the resolution is flawed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2419736/Social-services-failed-children-killed-by-schizophrenic-mother.html
i don't know what kind of a comment to leave on this blog so...
ReplyDeleteyea
(ahem)
good job all...
opps...
ReplyDeletethis web site
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=define%3A+increase&aq=f&oq=
NOTTT
http://www.urban.org/publications/310164.html
Despite current changes in perspectives and discourses within state social areas, Argentine social policy does not seem to have experienced much change compared with the ones of the 90s. This paper addresses the factors that account for this continuity. Focusing on the examination of new socio-economic perspectives within state, I will contend that not only structural constraints characterizing the current organizational and technical features of state, but also cultural imaginaries and political practices -on the part of both state agents and the social groups to whom the policies are addressed- are inherited conditions that cannot be easily dismantled with discursive emphasis. Moreover, while these conditions do not obstruct the introduction of changes in the scope and design of targeted assistance-based policies, they establish important restrictions to a real socio-economic turn in the conceptual orientation of social policies
ReplyDeletethis card is talking about some of the policies for T
T:
ReplyDelete"Social services cover a wide array of service organizations (public, for-profit private, and non-profit private), including institutions providing welfare payments, individual and family social services, job training and vocational rehabilitation services, child day care services, residential care, and other social services (such as advocacy groups, community action and development groups, and councils for social agencies)."
Analysis: Okay so the main thing I take out of there is the part where it says "residential care". This is topical because were building low income housing.
Don't think its a good card but it is what i could find for what I know about T
Timothy Prickett Morgan.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/04/03/us_march_2009_jobs_report/
The monthly batch of bad news came out of the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning, which reported that companies in the United States chopped 663,000 jobs from their payrolls in March, boosting the unemployment rate to 8.5 per cent. Since the recession started in December 2007, U.S. companies have let go of 5.1 million people, with 3.3 million of them - nearly two-thirds of the total - coming in the past five months. The good news is that the numbers hit expectations and that the job losses reported in February remained unchanged at 651,000. But the bad news is that the figures for January, which had already been revised upwards from 598,000 to 655,000, have been revised again to a truly stunning 741,000 lost jobs.
Samana Siddiqi
http://www.soundvision.com/Info/poor/statistics.asp
According to the US Census Bureau, 35.9 million people live below the poverty line in America
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/substantial
of a considerable size or value
This T is sketchy but it could work if revised. The analysis here is that there are 35.9 million people below the poverty line but the unemployment rate is only 741,000 lost jobs. The argument made is that substantial means a lot or a considerable amount and this plan isn’t helping the majority of people below the poverty line.
sorry I forgot to put the url
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wa.gov/esd/lmea/sprepts/indprof/social.htm
A-Interpretation-
ReplyDeletePoverty is not unemployment
Def 1-Poverty is income, unemployment is employment status
Social Policy Research Center 2002
http://www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/dp/DP118.pdf
------------------------------------------------
It is also important to recognise that while poverty is generally measured using income (which is a flow variable, normally measured on an annual basis in poverty studies), unemployment is a stock variable that records labour force status at a point in time.
and
def-2 poverty is not the same as unemployment
Social Policy Research Center 2002
http://www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/dp/DP118.pdf
-----------------------------------------------
Reference has already been made to the fact that one reason why unemployment may not be associated with poverty concerns the possibility that other family members may have income sufficient to keep the family above the poverty line, even when one of its (adult) members is unemployed.
-----------------------------------------------
B-violation the aff only gives social services to the unemployed, not the impovered
rpatin: That evidence is alright, but try to find something more related to housing projects. I doubt that people are going to be disputing what a poor person is, but rather is the program a social service.
ReplyDeletec_burba: Nice job. See what else you can find to bolster your point. One piece of evidence from one site isn't always enough.
DMartin: I like the set up, but you don't explain why we are creating and why it isn't an increase. I found this evidence with a simple search on Google:
Government assistance already in place to help companies that hire unemployed, plan expands on this
Ellen Sueda, GJ Stillson MacDonnell, Chadwick M. Graham and Patricia A. Haim, February 24, 2009 (Ellen Sueda, GJ Stillson MacDonnell, Chadwick M. Graham and Patricia A. Haim, Business and Tax Attorneys, Mondaq, "
United States: Besides COBRA: What Does The Stimulus Package Have For Employers," February 24, 2009 http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=74924)
While most of the media and commentary has been focused on the COBRA subsidy in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA or "the Act") signed by President Obama on February 17, there are additional provisions that employers should be aware of including, new tax credits, changes in unemployment benefits, limits on executive compensation and limits on the availability of HB-1 visas. Each of these provisions are discussed in more detail below. For information regarding the COBRA subsidy see Littler's ASAP The Stimulus Package: An In-Depth Look at the New COBRA Subsidy in the ARRA.
The Employment Tax Provisions
State Unemployment Insurance
The ARRA provides significant funds to states to expand the amount of unemployment benefits, eligible circumstances qualifying for benefits and the duration of unemployment benefits under the "modernization" provisions of the stimulus law. From a financial perspective, as a result of these changes, employers are likely to be paying higher unemployment insurance taxes as well as face increasing scrutiny with respect to their utilization of independent contractors as the government enforcement agencies will have more resources to process and audit worker status claims.
Under the terms of the ARRA, the previously expanded 33-week limit for unemployment benefits scheduled to end on March 31 is extended to December 31, 2009. Additionally, the Act increases the current weekly benefits by $25. The law further requires participating state programs that want to maximize receipt of modernization funds to modify eligibility for benefits by choosing two of the four following options:
* Allow individuals to be eligible even if only seeking part-time work;
* Allow individuals to be eligible if employment separation was for compelling family reasons (i.e., domestic violence, family member illness or need to relocate because of spouse's change in job);
* Allow individuals to be eligible if participating in a state-approved training program; or
* Increase the allowance for dependents if the state already provides such an allowance.
This increase in benefits coupled with the current high levels of unemployment are likely to result in employers being pushed into the highest unemployment tax brackets for the next three or more years.
From a worker's perspective, unemployment insurance benefits have been taxable income to such recipients for at least federal tax purposes. Under the ARRA, the first $2,500 received will not be subject to federal income taxes during 2009.
For the purposes of calculating benefits and eligibility, states typically use a 12-month "base period" that ends typically three to six months before unemployment begins. For example, if an employee is terminated in February 2009, the "base period" would end September 30, 2008. Under previous law upwards of six months of final wages would not generally be considered in setting either benefits or eligibility. As part of the modernization incentives, state laws need to provide either that the base period include the most recently completed calendar quarter before the start of the benefit year or provide that, in the case of an individual who would not otherwise be eligible under state law, eligibility shall be determined using the base period that includes the most recently completed calendar quarter.
In addition to potentially requiring state-level legislation to implement these changes, a state's computer systems and administrative processes will also require modification. This is likely to lead to much confusion in making both eligibility and benefit determinations. Employers will have to remain vigilant to avoid excessive benefit charges.
From the employer's perspective, this shift may increase benefits charged, and therefore, the employer's liabilities under the unemployment system. Additionally, these added modernization funds are likely to fund further state-level staffing resources to audit more actively the status of independent contractors as well as process unemployment claims. It is anticipated that both the enhanced and extended benefit as well as the increased state resources will increase potentially significantly the number of misclassification audits conducted by the state agencies. In anticipation of such developments employers should conduct an internal review of the utilization of independent contractors.
Income Tax Payroll Holiday
Embedded in the law is a special provision known as "Making Work Pay" credit. It allows for an adjustment of the federal income tax withholding tables to potentially allow single and couples filing jointly (within certain incomes) to reduce the amount of income taxes withheld by up to $400 for singles and $800 for couples in 2009 and 2010. These phased out "credits" are available only to individuals earning $97,000 or less per year or $190,000 for couples.
In order to implement these changes, the IRS will be issuing revised withholding tables that will need to be fed into an employer's payroll system. As it is anticipated that this process will not be implemented immediately such tables will be adjusted to reflect prospectively credits retroactive to January 1, 2009. Without such adjustment, the average weekly income tax savings is expected to be $7.69 per week for an individual but with this catch-up provision it is likely to be between $12 and $14 a week in 2009.
It is anticipated that in addition to adjusting the payroll tables, additional paperwork/worksheets will be required from employees. Employers do not appear to have any choice but to make adjusted tables available and process paperwork even though employees have the option to take such credit as part of the filing of their 2009 and 2010 tax returns.
Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC)
The WOTC, a voluntary program by which employers earn a tax credit for hiring individuals from one or more specific groups, is expanded under ARRA. Under the new law, employers are eligible to earn a tax credit for hiring unemployed veterans and disconnected youths after December 31, 2008. A person is considered an unemployed veteran under this Act if he or she has been discharged or released from active duty in the Armed Forces at any time during the five-year period ending on the hiring date, and is in receipt of unemployment compensation under state or federal law for at least four weeks during the one-year period preceding the date of hire. A "disconnected youth" is considered one who is between the ages of 16 and 25, is not regularly attending school or employed during the six-month period preceding the hiring date, and is not "readily employable by reason of lacking a sufficient number of basic skills."
esmith: Explain what you meant with this T. Are you saying that the unemployed are actually not going to me impoverished?
AMartin: So you are purposing that the plan would help the companies that build houses outside the United States? Give me some examples of companies that doe this.
hlarso: The definition is alright, but again, defining people as being poor, how does that prove that our plan is needed and topical?
s_Elliot: So you are saying that the plan is an addition to social service programs? See what else you can find to support this point.
A_merca: Topicality is not about proving that the resolution is flawed, but that the plan is flawed in some manner.
Nhanco: Nice effort, but this talks about Argentine. See if you can find something dealing with the United State's policies.
cvenem: That is a decent card and I am pretty sure you are right that housing would count as Residential Care. Try looking into social services on Google, and see what you find.
Nsteele: You are thinking, and that is good. I think you are misreading the evidence though. The figure you quote is the number of people who lost their jobs in just January. The unemployment rate is 8.5 percent, as per your evidence. If you do a quick calculation and assume that the workforce is around 135.8 million people and the unemployment rate is 8.5 percent, that means that nearly 11.7 million people are unemployed. I think that the plan would provide substantial assistance. Nice job, that evidence will work well to defend the plan.
Dvuong: Nice job. Can you post a little but more of that evidence? Short snippets can sometimes mean the evidence is taken out of context. Thanks!
Everyone: All-in-all, you guys are thinking and trying to learn. That is most important part. Keep it up!
ya, thats exactly it, the Aff isnt helping the impovished just the unemploryed... cant spell
ReplyDeleteEsmith: You may want to have some evidence to back that up. Statistics for unemployed versus those impoverished.
ReplyDelete