A paralegal by training, Terry has been out of work for two years and his unemployment insurance benefits ran out in May.  He has not insisted on staying in the same field and has retrained in electronic health records.  He applies for jobs and the latest has been at a hardware store.

But like many workers in Minnesota, where the number of job seekers outnumbers job openings by 24 to 1 in some regions, there are no job offers.  He gets by on food stamps, depleting his retirement savings and what he calls a hodge podge of short-term assistance. 

He is 62, just old enough for Social Security and has already applied — although he would rather work.  Applying for Social Security early is not good for him:  he will receive lower benefits amounting to only 40 percent of what he was receiving through unemployment insurance. Nor does discontinuing temporary unemployment benefits to Mr. Hokenson and having him turn to permanent social security benefits save the federal government any money.

Here is a link to an interview in one of the local daily newspapers a couple of weeks featuring Mr. Hokenson: http://www.individual.com/story.php?story=118895697

This entry was posted on Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 9:26 am and is filed under Economic Security, Our State Coalitions.