Unemployment & Drug Testing

yes they should be tested...PERIOD. I had to take a drug test to get my job and have random test to keep it. So they should NOT be tested monthly or yearly..just random..put all the numbers in a bucket and pick 1/4 of them.

Drugs are illegal...who really cares if you are drug tested or not...unless you have something to hide?

I don't think they should be drug tested, but now that everyone has answered with "welfare people are the ones who should be tested!" I just want to say something. My husband and I are sober, God-fearing people, and he is disabled, so we are on a certain amount of welfare. I am thankful that the Lord has provided us with a system to help us in our time of need. It's degrading enough that we can't provide enough for our family and have to ask for help...to be drug tested like some cretins would make it almost unbearable. NOT EVERYONE WHO HAS TO ACCEPT WELFARE IS A JUNKIE.

Denise:

you must be full of piss and vinegar today!! (LOL!! :) )

NOT ONLY NO BUT HELL NO!! Unemployment is NOT welfare.

Unemployment Compensation is NOT welfare. It is an insurance package that O. pays into via their taxes and withholdings from their position.

Whether they were RIFd (reduction in force), laid off (same as RIF) and fired - they should receive it - I know that if I chose to walk away from my job - I am not "entitled" to receive it. As I made a choice to leave a job. If you were fired for cause (theft) then no - I don't believe you should be allowed to collect as you have already gained by stealing.

Welfare recipients should be tested randomly - so they can't cheat the system. if they get pregnant while on welfare - no extra dollars come your way - you can't afford to take care of yourself - then there is no way you should be procreating and using someone else's money to take care of that child....the O.'s who are baby making machines and living off my dime? tie their tubes - hysterectomy - whatever - but NO MORE BABIES!!!

I think it's a bumper sticker philosophy that people hear on tv and then vomit back out without thinking it through. Social problems are much more complex than that. Combining the criminal justice system with the social justice system isn't the answer. It would cost billions in enforcement and testing. To propose that is to live in a glass house. Until you've walked in someone elses shoes you are in no position to judge and certainly in no position to say whether they deserve aid or not. Do thier children deserve aid?

people on welfare should be the ones getting drug tested, not the ones drawing unemployment. And the drug testing should come from the recipients benefit award.

I agree welfare recipients should be drug tested if they are on welfare beyond a 12 month period.

Workers DO NOT PAY INTO UNEMPLOYMENT!
Sorry - know that is yelling, but so-o-o many people have that wrong! ONLY the employers pay into the unemployment funds! Workers can draw IF they worked enough (usually 3 qtrs).

People on welfare or have their kids in welfare system. I think they should. I think it would clear some room for people who really really need the help. People who have lost their jobs do to the economy shouldnt be treated like felons or teen agers. Unless they are applying for a job that requires it, leave the people who are not abusing the system and truly ned the help. Now I dont know much about UC and how it works, my dad was recieving it but he was only allowed 6 months. This was before the melt down. I know my mom had to do the fed taxes on it because they were not pulling them from his UC.

i agree, though test the welfarers. not those who are seeking UC. Those on welfare abusing it and get theirs until they are not allowed anymore then they will have another family member go apply then they get them again for 5 years... I had a friend worked for DSHS and saw this happen all the time. Their hands are tied.

edit: We have past judgment on the welfare people who like Mrslaville. So maybe not from the jump start. If they are people who are recurrant , then they should be testing them at least once a year. now if it is due to disabilty, never should they be gone after for drug testing. that is something that is wayyyy out of their control.

Good question.

Poeple that are receiving state or federal aid should be drug tested and should have to have their GED or diploma too. For WC I don't think you should have to be drug tested.

Since I am the O. that has probably sparked this question I feel I should respond. UC is not welfare, true. My deal with drug testing them is that most jobs are going to require drug testing as a condidtion of employment so why not make sure they are employable? As for saying that UC is paid for by the worker, BS. People who draw UC get way more than they paid in. It is just like social security and even run by the same people. The current workers (taxpayers) are paying for the payments of the people currently drawing them. As for who should pay for the drug testing; the government not the company that laid them off. If a person is not employment ready due to failing a drug test then they should lose the benefit and that can provide the money to pay for the tests. I am not talking the tests that you go to some company each time and have them screen your urine. Get the ones that look like a pregnancy test and use those most of the time, they are not that expensive. Save the expensive ones for random testing. We used them all the time when I was a military recruiter right in the office.

In order to receive unemployment, you must first pay into it. You do not pay into welfare to receive money, therefore, drug testing shouldn't be required for unemployment but should for welfare. Most people never see a penny of the money they have paid into unemployment let alone, use more than what they have put in all these years. Lately though, with all the extension of unemployment it is becoming like a welfare.

A better solution would be to have an option for employees to have a savings type fund that they can choose to be in and if they ever lost their job, they can take from those funds. This way, they will know how much money they have left in their account and start looking for jobs immediately instead of sitting on their rears because they "can't" find a job in their career field.

Also, it would eliminate those paying into it who won't benefits from it, ie: teenagers who work part time who do not qualify for it but are required to pay into it.

Hmmm, the more I think about this as I write it, maybe it isn't a bad idea to test uc. After all, the wonderful gov't is the O. who requires you to pay into it, so let them pay for the testing. Of course then, we would just be taxed a higher % because they would need to make up for paying for the testing some how and what better way than to tax the hell out of people??!!

I guess I lean toward saying I don't think so. People pay into UC while they work, and I think they deserve to receive it regardless of any personal issues they have assumning they are really looking for work, etc. It is not welfare at all.

I guess the opposite argument would be that tax money might be used for drugs... but it might also be used to feed their kids. There is no saying where that money goes, and until all companies drug test and fire people who use, then I think we need to keep giving UC. Lots of high power executives use drugs just like a minimum wage fast food employee or some O. receiving unemployment.

I don't necessarily think that drug testing should be mandatory for unemployment compensation, unless THAT was the reason for the person to lose their job in the first place. I DO however think that there should be drug testing for welfare past a certain point. I think lots of people have a tendency to get on welfare & stay on it because, well, I don't really know why to be honest. I personally have collected unemployment 3 times in my life, for 3-4 months each time while job hunting. I was required to submit companies I had applied for work with & I was also required to take classes the 3rd time because I was deemed "un-reemployable" based on my work experience (an accountant who had been working for & laid off by 3 different construction companies when the housing market dropped out). I did everything that was asked of me by the state offices because even though Delaware maximum weekly unemployment rate was about 30% of my regular pay, not 60% like most states, I still desperately needed that money to make my mortgage payment & still be able to feed my kids. With that being said, if they told me I needed to drug test, I would have done so, but I don't think someone who collects it for a couple of months in desperate times should automatically have to be drug tested.

I'm late here but wanted to add my 2 cents....when I was working full time at TI (Texas Instruments, military contract), and much of that as a FT divorced mom with a child.....I had to submit my urine and endure 'random' drug testing to keep my job.

O. of my best clerks failed her test (pot) and was walked to the door. All the alcoholics, who spent too much time in the smoke room and going to rehab centers, stayed on for years.

In my simple way of looking at what is right and fair...If we hard working, tax paying citizens have to pass drug tests to keep our jobs therefore our incomes, then people on the receiving end should have to stay clean as well. I'm not working my booty off for someone else to stay home and be high.

People receiving welfare should be lthough I don't think they should punish children by also getting rid of their health insurance. I don't think it should be required for unemployment although to stay on it you should be required to improve your chances of obtaining a new job whether it's colleges courses, certification classes, skills, job fairs, etc

If they test pos for drugs they should be put in rehab and their children placed with family or foster care temporarily. The kids after all did not pick their parents nd deserve clean ones.