Every year more than 17,600 older workers in Illinois get unemployment insurance payments that are drastically lower than what they should receive. Some unemployed older workers get ZERO. A law called the Social Security offset has been short-changing Illinois seniors since 1980. It's not fair. Employers pay the full amount into the unemployment fund for every eligible worker. They don’t pay less
for workers who are older and on Social Security. Therefore, older workers in Illinois who are on Social Security should get their full unemployment payments. But they don't. Legislation to repeal the Social Security offset law has been introduced in Springfield since 2002. Not one bill has made it to the floor of the General Assembly. But in 2009, a new effort to repeal the offset began. It was gaining so much momentum and gathering so much support that the opponents of repeal had a section inserted into a necessary 2011 budget bill that established the Social Security Retirement Pay Task Force. The sole purpose of the task force was to delay action on offset repeal for at least two to three years -- and maybe, if they were lucky, to kill it.
