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4 more states offer benefits to spouses forced to quit jobs

New Jersey, Arkansas, South Carolina and Connecticut have joined the list of states that now allow military spouses to collect unemployment compensation when they must quit their jobs to follow their service members to new duty stations.

South Carolina changed its law in June. The changes are effective in Connecticut and Arkansas on Oct. 1, and in New Jersey on Dec. 9.

According to the Defense Department, 21 states now allow trailing military spouses to receive unemployment benefits. Eight states deny such benefits outright; the rest consider such requests on a case-by-case basis.

The Pentagon is working this issue hard. Since defense officials launched a “USA 4 Military Families” state partnership program three years ago, 13 states have changed their policies to let spouses get unemployment compensation.

Ten regional representatives act as liaisons between the military services and state policymakers to provide information and resources on key quality-of-life issues.

In May, Leslye Arsht, deputy undersecretary of defense for military community and family policy, was on hand when Gov. Mike Beebe of Arkansas signed a law making military spouses eligible for unemployment pay.

“This monetary bridge, when necessary, is important for sustaining family income while adjusting to the continual stress of relocation,” Arsht said in a press release.

Many spouses know firsthand what that means, and many are still fighting for change.

“You need that second income,” said Tera Fitzgerald, who left her job with Navy Morale, Welfare and Recreation in Hawaii in March to move with her husband, a Navy E-7, to Meridian Naval Air Station, Miss. She has been looking for a job since, and trying to get unemployment benefits.

With her job loss and the difference in allowances — Hawaii’s cost of living is higher — the family’s income dropped by about $2,500 a month, she said.

“I had never applied for unemployment compensation before,” she said. “I never thought I was entitled. But then I wondered why I wouldn’t be entitled if I have to quit my job to move with my husband.”

She has appealed the decision to deny her benefits of about $210 a week, and was scheduled for a telephone hearing Oct. 1.

“I know I’ll be moving around in the future, but I want to help other people, too,” she said.

Family advocates applaud the states’ changes, as well as the Defense Department’s efforts to educate states on the importance of this and other issues to military families.

“I see it as a part of what DoD is doing today to connect these folks to military families and their communities,” said Joyce Raezer, chief operating officer for the National Military Family Association.

“For years, DoD’s attitude was that they couldn’t do anything about it, it wasn’t their issue,” Raezer said. “But now they are saying that if military spouse careers are important to retention, maybe they need to step up and do what they can to help spouses.”

New Jersey state Sen. Shirley Turner said she introduced a bill three years ago after receiving letters from some military spouses whose husbands were reassigned to other states.

DISCUSS: Relocating and employment