Unemployment insurance is a cooperative federal and state program that provides temporary, partial wage replacement to formerly employed people who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. This issue brief discusses the program and its importance as an approach to ameliorate the effects of welfare reform on struggling families. The brief describes the program and argues that it needs reforms in the welfare reform era. The brief details features of unemployment insurance programs that hurt low income families, including the dependence of eligibility on labor force attachment, involuntary job loss, and the unemployed person's availability for full time work. Also identified are opportunities and barriers to changing the program to better meet family needs and the use of creative funding strategies in state programs. A table delineates the states providing unemployment insurance coverage for voluntary terminations caused by domestic circumstances and for dependent allowances. The brief concludes by noting that the need to move unemployment insurance to the child advocate's agenda is clear and that, through coalitions with organized labor and dialogue with business-related organizations, child advocates can urge state legislatures to make needed reforms to the unemployment insurance program. (Contains approximately 30 references.) (KB)