Starting Monday, more than 200,000 unemployed Americans won’t see jobless benefits they’re expecting because Congress failed to act.
The interruption in benefits will last two weeks at a minimum, according to Judy Conti of the National Employment Law Project (NELP), since lawmakers return from spring break on April 12.
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Under the jobless benefits program that ends Monday, Americans out of work are eligible for up to 99 weeks of unemployment benefits. The program, aimed at helping jobless Americans stay afloat when new jobs aren’t readily available, gives an unemployed worker more than the 26 weeks of unemployment insurance normally available. But with the program ending, those out of work for as few as six months will see an interruption in their benefit checks.“Odds are they have burned through savings, already asked for loans and gifts from family and friends if needed, so going for two weeks without a paycheck, especially if those two weeks are a time when rent or mortgage is due, is going to be hard,” Conti said.
Conti’s group estimates that 212,000 people will lose unemployment benefits in the first week that the program has elapsed. For each additional week that the program isn’t extended, another 200,000 jobless Americans will see an interruption in benefits, Conti said.
Fiscal responsibility, Republican-style: Emergency funding for unemployed Americans must be paid for by cutting other social programs; non-emergency funding to increase the wealth of already wealthy Americans does not have to be paid for at all.
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