Unemployment Benefits

The U.S. Senate voted to extend unemployment benefits through May.  However, it still needs to pass through the House.  LOPPW’s leaders recognize that youth who are homeless with their families often experience loss because of one parent or two parents losing employment.
At LOPPW we are aware of the growing number of people who are jobless or are working and still living in poverty, causing some families to even split up their children between friends and relatives.  LOPPW has for several years have advocated for the prevention of hunger and homelessness o children and youth.
According to the Wisconsin Poverty Project in a 2013 report, the social safety net continues to function in Wisconsin.  “Tax-related provisions and near-cash benefits provided a buffer a buffer against poverty for many working families in 2011.”  But the study also found that more children were poor in 20011.  The reasons:  “Parents’ declined earned incomes and reductions in the safety net.  The Wisconsin child poverty rate rose from 10.8 percent in 2010 to 12.2 percent in 2011, a significant increase.”

“How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s good and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?  Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”
1 John 3:17-18