- The $ 600 per week unemployment insurance supplemental benefit expires July 31 and Congress has yet to approve a replacement.
- Nearly 30 million Americans continue to receive unemployment benefits, according to the latest figures from the Department of Labor.
- More than 5 million Californians continued to receive benefits in the week ending July 11.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
Millions of Americans are about to lose a vital lifeline as extended unemployment benefits expire.
In response to the new coronavirus pandemic and the resulting recession, Congress included a $ 600 per week supplement to unemployment insurance as part of the CARES Act stimulus package in March.
That tightening of the unemployment safety net expires July 31, and Congress has yet to approve an extension or replacement. Republicans in Congress had proposed a partial extension of a supplement of $ 200 per week, which failed in the Senate, as well as a Democratic bill that extended the full benefit of $ 600 per week.
An analysis by Bank of America noted that falling earnings, combined with the roughly 30 million Americans who were still laid off and received unemployment insurance, could lead to a huge collapse in aggregate income. According to the bank, a reduction from $ 600 to $ 200 per week would translate to a weekly national loss of income of approximately $ 12 billion, and the complete end of unemployment supplements would lead to a decrease of $ 18 billion in weekly income. .
A study by liberal think tank The Century Foundation calculated the effect of a $ 600 to $ 200 a week reduction in fringe benefits in each state, based on how average payments would change under the potential replacement law. Some states may see weekly benefits for unemployed workers that cut by about half.
As expanded benefits expired, approximately 28 million Americans in all 50 states and DC were still receiving unemployment benefits as of July 11, according to the most recent non-seasonally adjusted weekly figures from the Department of Labor released Thursday. This map shows the combined totals from that report for residents receiving traditional unemployment insurance and those receiving pandemic emergency benefits:
