Extra $600 unemployment benefit slated to run until July 31 ‘will disappear nearly a WEEK early’ – after Trump administration claimed it was stopping people from going back to work
- $600 weekly jobless benefit was included in the CARES Act passed by Congress in March
- Many believed the benefit was expected to run until Friday, July 31
- However, a technicality in the fine print means the payments could end on Saturday, July 25 or Sunday, July 26
- 1.5 million people filed unemployment claims last week ; The New York Times reports ‘roughly 30 million’ are currently receiving a government benefit
The $600 weekly unemployment benefit received by Americans who are made jobless during the COVID-19 pandemic will ‘disappear nearly a week earlier than expected’, according to USA Today.
The benefit was included in the CARES Act passed by Congress back in March in a bid to mitigate the financial fallout from the coronavirus crisis.
The $600 payments were largely believed to end on July 31 – but a technicality in the fine print means payments may not be made for the final days of the month.
The CARE Act states 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 means people will be ineligible for payment after Saturday, July 25 or Sunday, July 26.
If the government does not make an amendment, it will be significant blow for the millions of unemployed Americans getting by on the beefed-up payments.
Regular unemployment benefits across the US average around $370 a week.
The $600 weekly unemployment benefit received by Americans who are made jobless during the COVID-19 pandemic will ‘disappear nearly a week earlier than expected’, according to USA Today
Last month, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow claimed the $600 benefits did not provide an incentive for jobless Americans to find new employment, and Republican senator Rob Portman even proposed a ‘back to work bonus’ for those who get off the benefit.
‘The trouble with the $600 plus-up, and maybe we needed it in that emergency period, but frankly it’s a major disincentive to go back to work and we don’t want that,’ Kudlow stated.
‘We want people to go back to work.’
According to a study published by three University of Chicago economists 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 flat federal supplement of $600 means that total unemployment benefits now exceed average wages in at least 35 states.