21 US states end pandemic unemployment assistance [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• More states decided to cancel extended jobless benefits amid pandemic.
• Indiana, Texas, and Oklahoma joined the number of growing states that will end their participation in unemployment benefits.
• This will eliminate the $300-a-week unemployment bonus, hurting contractors, gig workers, and others who had access to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.

More and more US states withdraw from federal pandemic unemployment assistance, affecting about 3.6 million workers.

To date, Indiana, Texas, and Oklahoma are the most recent to join the number of growing states that will end their participation in such unemployment benefits following the coronavirus pandemic.

This means that workers in those 21 states will be losing averagely $21.3 billion, according to the Century Foundation’s analysis.

In Texas alone, unemployment skyrocketed to 12.9% because of the ongoing pandemic. With this move to end federally-funded programs for the jobless, workers in Texas will lose an estimated $3,000 in aids, leaving 1.3 million of its workers with limited to no benefits.

“It’s incredibly disappointing that even in states with high unemployment rates like Texas, Republican Governors are putting ideology over the needs of their workers,” unemployment insurance expert and senior fellow at the Century Foundation Andrew Stettner said. “For the first time in the pandemic, unemployed workers will largely not be able to find a source for help as they struggle to find a job.”

The decision is made final, however, with these programs now set to expire on September 6 this year. This will eliminate the $300-a-week unemployment bonus, hurting contractors, gig workers, and others who had access to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.

What’s worse, according to Stettner, is that the cut-off in benefits will most likely affect people of color across many states, where large portions of unemployment insurance recipients are Black, especially in Mississippi, South Carolina, and Alabama.

“We know in the southern states, people of color — Black workers in particular — are the majority of people on benefits,” Stettner said. “They’re the ones that will have the hardest time finding a job because of discrimination and also they’re the ones who were hit by COVID the hardest.”

Source: Yahoo News