By Jackie Simmonds, NEJS Blog Editor
The Senate failed to push back the Feb. 28 deadline to apply for extended unemployment benefits last week. This means that beginning today, Sunday February 28, the unemployed will stop getting extended benefits as their current extension benefits expire. This will impact 1.2 million workers in March.
Beginning on Monday, March 1 the jobless will no longer be able to apply for federal unemployment benefits or the COBRA health insurance subsidy. Federal unemployment benefits were available after the basic state-funded 26 weeks of coverage expire. Congress had approved up to an additional 73 weeks, which are divided into tiers, and the jobless must apply each time they move into a new tier.
In an economy that is expected to sustain the just under 10% unemployment rate for all of 2010 this is bad news to people who are counting on those benefits to keep their lives glued together as they search for work. The White House Council of Economic Advisers predicts that the unemployment rate won’t fall back to its 2008 level of 5.8% for another seven years. To the job seeker this means their long and hard search for employment isn’t about to end any time soon.
What happened to the extension? Lawmakers repeatedly tried to approve a 30-day extension this week, but each time, Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., prevented the $10 billion measure from passing, saying it needs to be paid for first. Senate Democrats plan to introduce legislation next week that pushes back the deadline as much as a year, an aide said. The House approved a bill in December that extended the deadline to the end of June. Until the job extension is approved the people impacted will loose their benefits, once the measure is approved, the jobless would be able to reapply for federal benefits, though they would not receive missed payments. Interrupted payments will create financial hardships for individuals who are already stretched thin by the length of time it is taking to find work.
» Read more: Finances: Extended Unemployment Benefits In Jeopardy
