Unemployment benefits extended
Over the past year, Congress has twice voted to extend unemployment benefits, and it looks like its going to extend them again as the recession wears on and unemployment continues to rise. Under a bill the House is set to take up today, more than a million people, living in states with jobless rates higher than 8.5%, could receive an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits. The extended benefits would apply to an estimated 314,000 people about to exhaust their benefits by month's end and to more than a million who will stop getting checks by the end of the year, according to the House Ways and Means Committee.
And it may not stop there...workers in other states could qualify if their state is expected to hit an 8.5% unemployment rate soon or meets other criteria. In most states, unemployed people receive 26 weeks of state-funded benefits, but depending on where they live, they will get federally funded extensions for a total of 79 weeks. The bill will be fast-tracked though the House, where it is expected to pass easily. Who is going to pay for it? The cost will be offset by extending, for one year, an employer-paid federal unemployment tax that has been in place for the past three decades, and by requiring that newly hired employees are reported with a start date, which would reduce unemployment insurance overpayments.
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