Unemployed Americans will start running out of pandemic unemployment assistance and pandemic emergency unemployment compensation benefits next month. About 4 million people will see their benefits due in mid-March, while the payments of an additional 7.3 million people will expire in the next four weeks, according to a report by The Century Foundation released Wednesday.
Democratic lawmakers this week began unveiling their next emergency relief bill, pushing President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion proposal. The bill calls for unemployment programs to be extended – and for a federal weekly increase in benefits of $ 400 – through August 29.
The House Ways and Means committee will consider the legislation on Wednesday.
The two temporary federal programs were created in March in Congress’ $ 2 trillion relief package and were extended by 11 weeks in the $ 900 billion relief deal passed in December. The former provides benefits to freelancers, handy workers, independent contracts and certain people affected by the pandemic, while the latter extends benefits for those in the traditional state unemployment system.
The December package also offers an additional $ 300 per week in federal payments through mid-March. But because Congress and former President Donald Trump waited until the end of the year to take action, more than $ 17 billion in unemployment benefits for January was delayed as states reprogrammed the provisions in their computer systems.
“There is no reason for Congress to wait until the last minute to extend these pivotal benefits and risk dropping aid,” wrote Andrew Stettner, senior fellow at the foundation, noting that lawmakers had two to four weeks to mid-March’s deadline to give state unemployment agencies time to process the new rules.
The imminent expiration of benefits is because job recovery in the country remains rocky. Just 49,000 jobs were added in January, and the US has still lost 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, about 40% of the total unemployed.
According to a Congressional Budget Office report released last week, the number of people employed is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024.
Still, the unemployment rate has fallen in many states since rising last spring. This means that fewer states are offering extended benefits, which come into effect when unemployment is high, which is not good news for the long-term unemployed, who often find it more difficult to return to work.
According to The Century Foundation, only about 734,000 workers, in just 12 states, could receive comprehensive state benefits in April if the two federal pandemic programs were to expire.
The economic hardship continues
Nearly a year after the pandemic, many Americans are still struggling to make ends meet.
According to the most recent Census Household Pulse Survey, released Wednesday, more than 24 million adults, or 11.2%, live in households where there was sometimes or often not enough food for the past seven days.
Also, more than 82 million adults, or more than a third, live in households where it was somewhat or very difficult to pay for usual household expenses during the pandemic, according to the survey, which was conducted between January 20 and February 1. .
And nearly 62 million adults, or about a quarter, expect a loss of income from work in the next four weeks.
