The clock is ticking on Capitol Hill, as talks between Republicans and Democratic lawmakers on a second package of incentives will run through the weekend. But no matter what action they take, about 12 million Americans will soon see a drop in unemployment benefits.
These Americans include workers, self-employed and self-employed, as well as unemployed Americans, who will exhaust the maximum number of weeks a person can receive unemployment benefits in their state. In pre-pandemic times, gig workers, freelancers and the self-employed were not eligible for unemployment benefits.
But through a CARES Act program known as Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, these workers became eligible for $ 600 a week in federal unemployment benefits, which expired in July. They were also eligible for state unemployment benefits, which were calculated on the basis of the average weekly unemployment benefits in their state.
It will expire on Dec. 31, but because state labor agencies usually pay on Saturday, 7.3 million Americans who received benefits through the PUA program will receive their last checks on Dec. 26 – just one day after Christmas, according to a report by Andrew Stettner and Elizabeth Pancotti of the Century Foundation with a liberal tendency.
Another 4.65 million Americans will also see their benefits drop to zero on the same day. These Americans were approved for another 13 weeks of unemployment benefits through another CARES Act program, emergency compensation for emergency unemployment, after exhausting the number of weeks in which they were granted by their states.
The California Department of Employment Development has warned about 3 million Californians that they should not expect to receive other benefits after December 26, “unless the US Congress takes further steps to expand them.” Alerts sent to applicants by e-mail, text, and mail also informed Californians about food and cash assistance programs.
In New York, about 1.4 million workers will stop receiving full unemployment benefits on December 26, according to the Foundation’s report.
Unlike incentive checks, which MPs are considering including in a second package of incentives and could be sent relatively quickly – albeit at half the size of the checks carried out in April – to state agencies for work need time to recalibrate their backend systems to implement any changes.
For example, when President Donald Trump authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency to use disaster relief funds to pay an additional $ 300 a week to unemployed Americans, several state labor agencies were needed. to make the necessary changes to their systems.
However, if Congress were to authorize a second round of incentive checks, the Treasury Department would essentially just have to “push a button and [the stimulus checks] it would be in people’s bank accounts, they will have this money before the end of the year “, said Claudia Sahm, former economist of the Federal Reserve.
That’s because the Treasury Department, during the first round of incentive checks, already kept a “master file” of every American’s information that was eligible for a check, Sahm said, based on conversations he had with officials in the U.S. department.
A proposal for a bipartisan stimulus package calls for a 16-week extension of the two CARES Act programs, which are due to expire on December 26. It is also demanding $ 300 a week in increased unemployment benefits that unemployed Americans would receive in addition to their state unemployment. benefits for 16 weeks, starting at the end of this month.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday that he is “even more optimistic now than I was last night that a bicameral bipartisan framework for a major rescue package is very close.”
On Thursday, the Kentucky Republican said it was “very likely” that lawmakers would have to work over the weekend to complete a stimulus package.