Unemployment Benefits Fund Running Out Of Money

The Unemployment Insurance Fund that pays benefits to South Carolinians who’ve lost their jobs will run out of money at the end of the month. The Employment Security Commission has asked Gov. Mark Sanford to request a federal loan of $146 million, which would allow benefits to continue through March. But the governor says he won’t ask for the loan until the Employment Security Commission makes some changes.

That has unemployed workers like Sean Webb, who was just recently laid off, stuck in the middle of the battle between the governor and the state agency. "We're the victims of that,” he says. “I don't think that's fair to us, especially right now. Maybe we can try to wage this battle at a later date, but right now is not a good time to do it."

Gov. Sanford says the Employment Security Commission has mismanaged federal funds, using money to build four new buildings instead of going to unemployment benefits. He says the agency needs to be audited by an outside, independent auditor.

But executive director Ted Halley says the agency is already audited every year, and the new buildings were needed to serve the growing number of unemployed workers. In a letter to the governor, he said the money spent building new “Comprehensive One-Stop” offices in Newberry, Orangeburg, Hartsville and Beaufort amounted to less than one-week’s worth of unemployment benefits the state pays out.

Sanford says he won't budge, and won't ask for the loan unless the agency agrees to the changes. Why would he put unemployed South Carolinians, who need their unemployment benefits to feed their families, in the middle of a battle with a state agency? "Because that's how change happens," Sanford says. "It's the same phenomenon with what we've been battling against in speaking out against the bailout of the Big 3 (automakers) in Detroit."

When asked if he's willing to let unemployed workers lose their benefits by not asking for the federal loan, he said, "I wouldn't be doing that. They (the Employment Security Commission) would be doing that. I think it's important that people understand. We've laid out two simple reforms that we think are important going forward. They said, 'We don't want to do 'em.'"

Webb says he voted for Sanford, but disagrees with him on this. "We're using up what little bit of money we have left," he says of his family's financial situation. "I have a car payment, house payment just like everyone else does and I need to pay that. And I can't say, 'Well hey, the governor's waging a war right now.' The bank doesn't want to hear that. They want their money."