Unemployed Americans will begin to run out of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits next month. About 4 million people will see their benefits expire in mid-March, while payments for another 7.3 million people will expire in the next four weeks, according to a report by The Century Foundation, released Wednesday.
Democratic lawmakers began unveiling their next relief legislation this week, advancing President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion proposal. The bill provides for the extension of unemployment programs – as well as a $ 400 weekly increase in payments – until August 29. The president’s plan foresaw the continuation of benefits until the end of September.
The Chamber’s Methods and Resources Committee is considering legislation on Wednesday.
The two temporary federal programs were created in Congress’ $ 2 trillion aid package last March and were extended for 11 weeks under the $ 900 billion aid agreement approved in December. The former offers benefits for freelancers, concert workers, independent contracts and certain people affected by the pandemic, while the latter increases the duration of payments for those in the state’s traditional unemployment system.
The December package also provides an additional $ 300 per week in federal payments until mid-March. But, as Congress and former President Donald Trump waited until the end of the year to act, more than $ 17 billion in unemployment benefits for January have been postponed as states have rescheduled provisions on their computer systems.
“There is no reason for Congress to wait until the last minute to extend these critical benefits and risk a lapse in aid,” wrote Andrew Stettner, a senior member of the foundation, noting that lawmakers must act two to four weeks before the mid-term deadline. March to give state unemployment agencies time to process the new rules.
The expiration of benefits occurs at a time when the recovery of jobs in the country remains difficult. Only 49,000 jobs were created in January, and the United States is still down nearly 10 million jobs since before the pandemic. The unemployment rate fell to 6.3%, the first drop in two months.
Just over 4 million Americans have been out of work for at least six months, representing about 40% of the total unemployed.
The number of people employed is not expected to return to its pre-pandemic level until 2024, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office released last week.
Still, the unemployment rate in many states has declined since its peak last spring. This means that fewer states are offering extended benefits, which are triggered when unemployment is high and is not good news for the long-term unemployed, who often have a harder time returning to the job market.
Only about 734,000 workers in just 12 states could receive extended state benefits in April if the two federal pandemic programs were to expire, according to the Century Foundation.
Economic difficulties continue
Almost a year after the pandemic began, many Americans are still struggling to survive.
More than 24 million adults, or 11.2%, live in a home where there was sometimes or often not enough to eat in the past seven days, according to the most recent Census Household Pulse Survey, released Wednesday.
In addition, more than 82 million adults, or more than a third, live in families where it was somewhat or very difficult to pay normal household expenses during the pandemic, according to the survey, which took place between January 20 and February 1 .
And nearly 62 million adults, or about a quarter, expect a loss of income from employment in the next four weeks.
