According to USA Today, the weekly unemployment benefit of $ 600 received by Americans who lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic “will disappear almost a week earlier than expected.”
The benefit was included in the CARES Act passed by Congress in March in an attempt to mitigate the financial consequences of the coronavirus crisis.
The $ 600 payments are believed to have largely ended on July 31, but a small-print technicality means payments can’t be made by the last days of the month.
The CARE Law establishes that the benefits will end “on or before July 31,” which is a Friday. However, unemployment benefits are paid by states with a weekly end date of Saturday or Sunday.
USA Today concludes that this means that people will not be eligible for payment after Saturday, July 25 or Sunday, July 26.
If the government does not make an amendment, it will be a severe blow to the millions of unemployed Americans who survive on increased payments.
Regular unemployment benefits in the United States average around $ 370 per week.
According to USA Today, the weekly $ 600 unemployment benefit received by Americans who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic “will disappear almost a week earlier than expected.”
Last month, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow claimed that the $ 600 benefits did not provide an incentive for unemployed Americans to find a new job, and Republican Senator Rob Portman even proposed a ‘return bonus to the work ‘for those who make the profit.
“The problem with the $ 600 raise, and maybe we needed it in that emergency period, but frankly it’s a huge disincentive to go back to work and we don’t want that,” Kudlow said.
“We want people to go back to work.”
According to a study published by three economists at the University of Chicago in early May, two-thirds of workers who lost their jobs in the pandemic are eligible for unemployment benefits that exceed their lost wages.
Because average wages vary greatly from state to state, the $ 600 fixed federal supplement means that total unemployment benefits now exceed average wages in at least 35 states.
However, many Democrats have proposed extending the benefits, particularly as coronavirus cases continue to rise, raising fears of another large-scale blockade.
Last month, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow claimed that the $ 600 benefits did not provide an incentive for unemployed Americans to find a new job.
“It puts money in people’s pockets, we’re going to see a large number of people evicted,” USA Today quotes Senator Sherrod Brown saying the $ 600 profit.
Meanwhile, a Florida woman said receiving the money is “a matter of life and death” for many.
Melissa Rusk, a mother of four, lost her job amid the pandemic and says the weekly benefit of $ 600 has been crucial to her, even though her husband is still working.
The New York Times reports that about 30 million Americans are receiving financial assistance from the government.
According to the publication, 19.5 million people receive unemployment benefits, “more than 11 million people receive Federal Unemployment Assistance against a Pandemic as of June 6.”
People line up outside the Kentucky Career Center before it opens to find help with their unemployment claims in Frankfort, Kentucky on June 18
The number of laid-off workers applying for unemployment benefits decreased slightly to 1.48 million last week, the twelfth consecutive drop and a sign that layoffs are slowing but are still at a painfully high level.
The Labor Department said Thursday that new claims for state unemployment benefits totaled 1.48 million for the week ended June 20, down from 1.54 million the week before and the first time it has dropped below 1.5 million since March.
However, a sudden resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the United States, especially in the South and West, threatens to derail an economic rebound.
On Wednesday, the nation set a record for new cases of coronavirus. Many states are establishing their own daily infection registries, including Arizona, California, Mississippi, Nevada, Texas, and Oklahoma. Coronavirus cases have also increased in Florida and Georgia.
If those trends continue, states can re-impose some limits on companies that are likely to cause job cuts.
“The health crisis continues to cast a dark shadow on the economic outlook,” said Bob Schwartz, an economist at Oxford Economics, a forecasting company.
The Labor Department said Thursday that new claims for state unemployment benefits totaled 1.48 million for the week ending June 20.
.
