It is completely unfair for the Illinois Department of Employment Security to prevent an unemployment beneficiary from receiving further education using the threat of withholding unemployment benefits. A recent unemployed person is "forced to choose" between receiving a further education and receiving their unemployment benefits.

This act of pure extortion by the Illinois Department of Employment Security lets the former employer "off the hook" for their unemployment contributions, even if the recently unemployed person from their company uses "their own money" to pay for their further education. What business is it of the Department of Employment Security how the unemployment benefits are spent anyway?  Getting an education in the United States is hard enough without this unfair policy in place. In fact, preventing the recently unemployed from spending their unemployment benefits on additional education essentially undermines the very purpose for which unemployment benefits were originally provided -- that is, for the recently unemployed to locate another job!!!

Sign this petition and include your comments so that it can be presented to the Illinois Department of Employment Security and even could be placed on a election ballot. With your assistance, we can get this unfair policy reversed.

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