Topic Unemployment Insurance & COVID-19: What Domeestic/Sexual Violence Attorneys & Advocacy Should Know
At a moment of unprecedented unemployment, survivors may benefit from unemployment insurance but there’s also lack of clarity about the various options. Restricted access to income during this time can have detrimental, long-term consumer impacts, including: eviction, increased vulnerability to high-cost and predatory lending, building up of debts and risk of debt collection, etc. This webinar will unpack current UI guidance and explore three general situations where attorneys and advocates can help survivors maintain economic security while unemployed during the pandemic: 1) If, when, and how traditional Unemployment Insurance (UI) may be an option for survivors, especially if they need to quit (or can't telework or take paid leave) because co-location is not safe for them/family; 2) Survivors may qualify for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance even if they don't qualify for regular UI (but what are the differences? And how to apply and where to get help?); 3) What attorneys and advocates can do in states where UI isn't available to survivors. This builds upon past work of CSAJ, detailed in our Guidebook on Consumer & Civil Legal Advocacy.
Learning Objectives:
1) Advocates and attorneys will gain a better understanding of UI options and broad advocacy strategies to increase survivor access to needed financial relief.
2) Attorneys will gain a better understanding of what they can do in the context of survivors’ family law and other legal cases -- and in partnership with advocates.
3) Program leaders will gain better understanding of the UI landscape and ways to enlist new or strengthen current partnerships to expand resources
Faculty include experts on unemployment insurance and advocacy that can speak to the issues from different perspectives:
Judy Conti, Government Affairs Director, National Employment Law Project
Krista Del Gallo, Public Policy Manager, Texas Council on Family Violence
Lisalyn R. Jacobs, CSAJ Legal Advisor & Founder of Just Solutions