Extra unemployment aid expires as virus threatens new states
LOS ANGELES (AP) — As public health officials warned Friday that the coronavirus posed new risks to parts of the Midwest and South, enhanced federal aid that helped avert financial ruin for millions of unemployed Americans was set to expire — leaving only threadbare safety nets offered by individual states to catch them.
Early in the pandemic, with the economy cratering, the federal government added $600 to weekly unemployment checks. That increase ends this week, and with Congress still haggling over next steps, most states will not be able to offer nearly as much while they wrestle with diminishing unemployment trust funds.
The extra federal aid helped keep Wally Wendt and his family afloat.
Wendt, 54, of Everett, Washington, was laid off from the fitness company where he worked for 31 years. The extra benefits helped him pay for a loan to put a new roof on his house that he took out before the virus struck.
The money also helps his daughter, who was laid off from a restaurant job. With the boost, she’s able to afford diapers, formula, rent and utilities. If it ends, Wendt said, his daughter and her two children might move in with him.
“The politicians need to get their ducks in a row.” Wendt said. “The pressure’s not on them, it’s on all of us blue-collar workers who are struggling to make a living.”
The regular benefits often leave recipients with poverty-level incomes, but at least they’re sure to continue.
Every state offers assistance for at least some unemployed workers based on a portion of their previous earnings. The maximum amounts vary widely, from $235 a week in Mississippi to $1,234 in Massachusetts. The length of time benefits are available ranges from as few as six weeks in Georgia to up to 28 weeks in Montana. Most states...
