In February, in an attempt to address a $2bn debt that it owed the federal government, North Carolina passed a law that slashed both the number of weeks for which a job-seeker can receive state benefits and reduced the amount that it pays out in unemployment, from $535 a week to $350.
In doing so, North Carolina knowingly violated a contract with the federal government, resulting in the automatic cutting off of federal assistance for the long-term unemployed. The changes, which came into effect in July, therefore didn’t just cut the amount of support that people who lost their jobs received from their government by a third, it also meant the maximum length of time they could receive such benefits plummeted from 99 weeks to just 19.
Read more here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/15/north-carolina-unemployment-benefit-cuts-poverty?CMP=twt_gu