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'Insulin or groceries': How reduced unemployment affects struggling Americans from California to Mississippi

'Insulin or groceries': How reduced unemployment affects struggling Americans from California to Mississippi

'Insulin or groceries': How reduced unemployment affects struggling Americans from California to Mississippi
Aug 02, 2020 2 mins, 52 secs

Experts warn that the GOP's efforts to cut enhanced unemployment benefits will have dire effects for more than 25 million out-of-work Americans.

Christopher Bolei is worried about how he’ll make ends meet now that the $600 federal unemployment benefit is cut off. .

That extra $600 is barely keeping us afloat,” says Bolei, who had been receiving about $4,200 a month in benefits with the additional weekly $600.

Millions of struggling out-of-work Americans are in limbo after the additional $600 in weekly unemployment benefits expired at the end of July, leaving many fearful of how they will survive and pay their bills without the extra jobless aid. .

One of the controversial aspects of the plan would reduce the unemployment bonus from $600 to $200 through September, and then cap federal jobless assistance to 70% of workers' pay moving forward.

The Democrats want to extend the weekly $600 federal unemployment bonus through January, and rejected a short-term deal to continue the bolstered aid for one week.

"We want a temporary extension of enhanced unemployment benefits," Trump said at the White House Thursday.

The GOP's bill, which would cut enhanced unemployment benefits by $400 per week, or by two-thirds, would have dire consequences for more than 25 million people currently out of work and receiving the emergency income boost, according to The Century Foundation, a nonprofit think tank.

The Senate Republican proposal to reduce the weekly $600 supplement to $200 threatens to lead to 3.4 million fewer jobs created over the next year, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

People in states with lower average unemployment payments could see their weekly benefits drop by as much as 57%, data from The Century Foundation shows.

Reinstating the extra jobless benefits could create an “administrative nightmare” for state unemployment agencies, where recipients could face a lapse in aid of two to four weeks even if benefits are reinstated right away, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

“Most state agencies don’t have enough resources or the technology to agilely respond to this,” says Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute.

Adding to the concern, even an additional $600 per week doesn't achieve full wage replacement in some high-cost cities like New York City, San Francisco and Washington.

To combat this, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has called on policymakers to propose a 40% federal match, boosting a typical state benefit, which is usually between 40% and 50% of a jobless person’s prior earnings, to between 56% and 70% of previous earnings.

Still, Thomas Darnell, 48, of West Point, Mississippi, is worried about how the government will calculate the additional unemployment benefits in the future.

Nearly a third of Americans somewhat-to-strongly disagree that the government is doing enough to help people financially during the pandemic, even with the additional $600 in unemployment benefits.

With the additional $600, Darnell was making about the same as his prior weekly wages, he says. Now, he fears what will happen as the bonus ends.

“If we lose that extra money, it’s going to be impossible to survive,” Darnell says.

It’s a hard juggle,” Darnell says.

The extra $600 and the state benefits kept her income on par with what she was earning before the pandemic

Now that the bonus has expired, she can’t afford to live off of state benefits alone, she says. 

But once the weekly $600 benefit expired, he qualified for only $125 a week in state benefits, he says

In Florida, the state unemployment maximum is $275 a week.  

That extra money helped keep the bills paid,” Drew says

Summarized by 365NEWSX ROBOTS

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