Unemployment Risk Score and Private Insurance for Employees

Abstract

Systems and methods for scoring unemployment risk and predicting unemployment probability and for optionally providing unemployment insurance to employees. The unemployment insurance is provided through a private insurer under which the unemployment insurance policy coverage and benefits terms are selected, and policy premiums paid for, by employees. The unemployment insurance benefits are paid to employees when they face involuntary unemployment. The present invention results in the calculation of unemployment risk scores and a method of rendering private unemployment insurance to employees in the form of a primary or a supplementary unemployment insurance, or both.

1 . A method for predicting and scoring an unemployment probability for an employee, comprising the steps of:
 collecting personal data related to said employee;   collecting national employment and unemployment data; and   calculating an unemployment risk score for said employee based upon the collected personal data and collected national employment and unemployment data.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said employee personal data is selected from the group consisting of education, age, gender, job industry, job type, job tenure, salary, employment and unemployment history, geographical location, unemployment insurance claims and benefits history, income characteristics, and credit characteristics. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said national employment and unemployment data is selected from the group consisting of historical national employment and unemployment figures, involuntary unemployment figures, government unemployment insurance claims, government unemployment insurance claim acceptance rates, government unemployment insurance benefit payment rates and amounts, duration of government unemployment insurance claims, federal and state unemployment insurance fund data, and government insurance program policies and guidelines. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of computing an unemployment risk score further comprises the steps of:
 segmenting a national workforce population into risk categories, each risk category comprising a plurality of individual risk subcategories; and   assigning a risk factor weight relative to a forecasted national employment rate for each of said plurality of risk subcategories within each risk category.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein said unemployment risk categories are selected from the group consisting of education, industry, age, gender, occupation, state, region, income, work experience, training level, work performance, job change frequency, industry change frequency, historical unemployment data, unemployment severity, job necessity, debt-to-income ratio, expenses-to-income ratio, and job confidence. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising the step of:
 computing an employment security score from said unemployment risk score.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising the step of:
 computing a short term and a long term employment value based on a mechanism selected from the group consisting of unemployment risk scores, unemployment rates, current income, expected income growth, expected duration of employment, expected education level, expected job changes, current and future cost of living projections, job change history, and income history.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein said forecasted national unemployment rates are generated based on a mechanism selected from the group consisting of consumer price index, producer price index, interest rates, trade balance, housing starts, industrial production, currency exchange rates, retail sales, personal income and credit, consumer expenditure, industry capacity utilization, government spending, capital spending, consumer confidence and other economic data. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising the step of:
 offering a plurality of different unemployment insurance options to said employee based on said calculated unemployment risk score and said assigned risk factor weights.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising the step of:
 calculating a monthly premium for each of said plurality of offered unemployment insurance options based on said calculated unemployment risk score and said assigned risk factor weights.   
     
     
         11 . A method of establishing a risk-based private unemployment insurance for employees, comprising the steps of:
 predicting unemployment rates and computing unemployment risk scores for each of a plurality of homogeneous risk segments;   determining a range of insurance benefits levels available for each of the plurality of risk segments;   calculating a base risk-based premium price for each benefit level of each homogeneous risk class; and   offering a plurality of unemployment insurance policy options to an employee based upon the risk class to which the employee belongs.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein said determination of benefits is calculated based upon a mechanism selected from the group consisting of historical unemployment rates, forecasted unemployment rates, unemployment risk factors and unemployment risk scores. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the plurality of benefits include an employee selection of benefits options selected from the group consisting of compensation amount, compensation payment duration, beginning of compensation payment periods, ending of compensation payment periods, and policy premium amount. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein said unemployment insurance is offered as primary coverage to employees with no existing insurance coverage. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein said unemployment insurance is offered as supplemental coverage to employees with existing insurance coverage. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein said insurance policy premium price is paid by the employee and where no contribution is required either from employers or government. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein said premium price is adjusted based on data selected from the group consisting of insurance provider's historical policies data, number of policies offered and written, policy acceptance rates, policy duration, policy prices, policy costs, number of claims made and accepted, duration and amount of claims, payout ratio data, loss amount and rates, and fraud amount and rates for each defined category of employees. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising the step of:
 issuing eligibility guidelines; and   requiring proof that the employee meets the eligibility guidelines and satisfactory proof of involuntary employment.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the premium price is reduced for a renewal policy. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein satisfactory proof of employee's involuntary employment is based on a mechanism selected from the group consisting of employee's termination or involuntary unemployment documents from employee's employer, employee's eligibility for government unemployment insurance, and government unemployment benefits payment records. 
     
     
         21 - 28 . (canceled)