CIN Meeting

The Community Involvement Network meeting I attended this past week provided some interesting information regarding immigration and Delaware County.

Statistics first:

Languages other than English Spoken in Delaware County
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2006-2008

• 89.5% (464,483) of Delaware County residents speak only English and
• 10.5% (54,359) report that they speak a language other than English as their primary language at home.

The 6 languages (other than English) most frequently spoken are

• Spanish/Spanish Creole,
• Chinese,
• Italian,
• African languages (a consolidated category of many languages),
• French (including Patois and Cajun) and Greek.

Among Delaware County residents who are speakers of other languages, 34.5% (18,766) report that they speak English “less than very well”. The top 6 languages spoken by those reporting limited English, are

• Spanish/Spanish Creole,
• Chinese,
• Korean,
• Vietnamese,
• Italian and
• Greek.
  

Language (other than English) spoken as primary language at home
% of all speakers of other languages (n=54,359)/% of all speakers of other languages who say they speak English less than very well (n=54,359)

• Spanish or Spanish Creole - 18.7/7.1
• Chinese - 9.6/4.4
• Italian - 7.5/2.1
• African languages (Census category grouping many languages) - 5.7/1.1
• French (incl. Patois, Cajun) - 5.6/1.2
• Greek - 5.5/1.9
• Korean - 5.0/2.8
• Vietnamese - 4.9/2.6
• French Creole - 3.9/1.1
• Other Indic languages - 3.4/1.4

I have handouts on other demographics but can't seem to get them posted here. I'll keep trying.

Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians:

This agency in Philadelphia does a lot of outreach work into both Delaware and Montgomery Counties. Their main goal is economic development - helping authorized workers find jobs, or start small businesses, and to help businesses find, hire and maintain employees among authorized immigrants.

They also have publications to help people who were professionals at "home" enter those professions in the states. Their website seems to be a wealth of information. Spend some time looking it through it if you haven't done so before.

www.welcomingcenter.org

Filing an Initial Application for UC Benefits Online

You should file your application any day during the first week you are unemployed or working reduced hours. You will need your social security number, alien registration number (if not a U.S. citizen), and information about your last employer, such as name and address.

Follow these steps:

Log on to the Internet at www.dli.state.pa.us.

On the right side of the screen, scroll until you see “QUICK LINKS”.

Then, click on “Unemployment Compensation”.

Click on “Services and Information for Individuals”.

Under the heading “New to PA Unemployment Compensation?”, click on “ File for
UC Benefits”.

Click on “File an Initial Application for UC Benefits”.

Select the language you wish to file in.

Follow the instructions to file your application.

Auxiliary aids and services are available upon request to individuals with disabilities.
Equal Opportunity Employer/Program

Filing Biweekly Claims via Internet

Internet services are available
· Sunday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

To access these services, the claimant will need:
· Social Security Number
· UC PIN (Personal Identification Number)
· Gross amount of weekly earnings for week(s) claimed (if applicable)
· Gross amount of weekly earnings if absent from work (if applicable)
· Gross amount of holiday pay and vacation pay (if applicable)

Go to http://www.state.pa.us/; Keyword: unemployment.

Click on: Services and Information for Individuals
Click on File a Bi-weekly Claim

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

File Bi-weekly Claims for UC Benefits

· Certify eligibility for each of the two weeks
· Check/change your answers, then submit
· Wait until you receive the confirmation page before leaving the site
· Print a confirmation page for your records
· If you have provided your e-mail address, you will also receive an e-mail confirmation

_____________________________________

Benefit Payment Information via Internet

Benefit payment information is available for claims within the last two years. The claimant will need:
· Social Security Number
· UC PIN

Click on: Benefit Payment Information

· Total benefits payable, remaining balance, weekly benefit rate
· Payment amount for each week paid, payment issue date
· Method of payment: direct deposit or debit card
· View and print UC-1099G for prior calendar years

UC Benefits and Claims

PA Workforce and Unemployment Compensation Resources
For Public users

Resource URLs


CWDS link - https://www.cwds.state.pa.us

UC link - http://www.dli.state.pa.us (keyword – “unemployment”)

DLI link - http://www.dli.state.pa.us

PA Workforce link - http://www.paworkforce.state.pa.us



UC Questions

If a public user has questions about filing for UC benefits or an existing claim for benefits, they should be directed to call
1-888-313-7284


CWDS Questions

If a public user has questions on using CWDS, please have them contact or visit their local PA CareerLink office. PA CareerLink information including address and telephone information can be found by using the “Locate Service Locations” link at the bottom of the CWDS home page.

Web addresses

Add this link to your favorites -

www.tinyurl.com

This is a nifty way to take those big long URLs (web addresses), and turn them into short, easy to work with addresses.

For example, someone wants the link to information about the Earned Income Tax Credit on the IRS web site. You can tell them to go to www.irs.gov and look for the link. Or you can give them the link

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=130102,00.html?portlet=7

Or you can go to tinyurl, paste address into the Make it Tiny box and give them

http://tinyurl.com/auchye

This especially useful for emails or other text forms where the link could get broken by inaccurate text wrapping.

Try it yourself.