Business Opportunities Weblog

Unemployed Can Now Use Benefits To Start a Business

By on June 4, 2012 in News

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Washington Post:

The U.S. Department of Labor issued guidelines Thursday for state workforce agencies to create programs that would allow their states’ unemployed to collect unemployment insurance while starting their own businesses. The so-called Self-Employment Assistance programs will be funded by a $35 million grant, divided among all 50 states and D.C., and disbursed to individuals who qualify for unemployment compensation but wish to start their own companies rather than find a new job.

The programs would require interested entrepreneurs to bring their business plans to their local state-based programs for evaluation. If approved, they would receive up to 26 weeks of financial assistance equal to the amount they would have received in unemployment insurance, as well as entrepreneurship training, while they attempted to get the business running.

They couldn’t before? Does anyone really think that this process will generate more small businesses? The states get to evaluate their business plans?< /p>

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Business Opportunities Weblog editor and publisher Dane Carlson lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, just 15 miles from Yosemite National Park. He accidentally became a professional blogger in 2001. He has added 12,198 posts to the site.

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  • Jim Reser

    This is a great idea. People starting a business out of being unemployed usually stick with it longer than people who obtain a new job after being unemployed. And they often make more money at a small business of their own than in a new job. The states could certainly utilize the services of the local Small Business Development Centers to evaluate business plans, provide inexpensive training and ongoing free one-on-one confidential consulting and coaching. The services are already in place for entrepreneurs, and are paid for by US Small Business Administration and local colleges, universities, or community colleges. The consulting services are available everywhere in the US, and are always free.

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