Given my first job (I left in 1978), I thought of this immediately. Maximum unemployment is 2/3 of your gross salary during the first 4 of the last 5 calendar quarters (in NJ). The maximum varies from state to state. The truth of the matter is that the existing unemployment insurance program addresses the needs of many laid off workers. Paying people as much or more to stay home will not provide incentive to go to work. It will be a logistical nightmare attempting to sort it out. BTW, I never denied anyone their claim. My job was to introduce computerization to a system that was basically handwritten. I don't know why they gave me the job. My degree was in psychology. Government!