Unemployment Insurance (UI) is a social insurance program in which eligibility is driven by loss of employment and experience in the workforce, not income level, educational attainment or other characteristics of recipients. Regular UI benefits are financed through employer contributions or reimbursements made on behalf of the entire workforce, including individuals who have not completed high school. Imposing an education-related requirement would deny benefits to the most vulnerable workers—workers who otherwise meet all other criteria for UI—and would undercut the purpose of UI by establishing a condition of eligibility unrelated to work or workforce attachment.

To learn more, read this fact sheet by Neil Ridley and Marcie Foster.