Extra $600 in Virus Unemployment Aid May End a Week Early for Some Americans

Extra $600 in Virus Unemployment Aid May End a Week Early for Some Americans
Visitors to the New York State Department of Labor are turned away at the door by personnel due to closures over CCP virus concerns in New York on March 18, 2020. (John Minchillo/AP Photo)
Jack Phillips
6/30/2020
Updated:
6/30/2020

For some unemployment insurance recipients, the extra $600 per week passed under the CARES Act might end early.

The CARES Act, passed in March, stipulated that the additional benefits would end at the end of July. But not all states will follow that mandate, terminating the extra weekly payments before that date.

The reason is that the final day for paying benefits for many states ends on Sunday or Saturday, meaning that July 25 or July 26 will mark the end of the extra payments. The CARES Act stipulates that July 31, a Friday, is the final paying day.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor (pdf), the last week to receive the $600 payments will be the week ending on July 25 or  July 26.
California and New York state are counted among the states that end their payment cycles on July 25 or July 26, according to the left-wing Economic Policy Institute think tank, as reported by CBS News. WMC5 reported that Tennessee will discontinue the payments on July 25.
“These benefits are a critical lifeline that help workers make ends meet while practicing the necessary social distancing to stop the spread of coronavirus,” said EPI state economy analyst Julia Wolfe in a blog post last week of the unemployment boost. “In fact, the $600 increase in weekly UI benefits was likely the most effective measure in the CARES Act for insulating workers from economic harm and jump-starting an eventual economic rebound, and it should be extended past July.”
People wearing facemasks walk past a health and safety guideline board and an open restaurant on Santa Monica Pier which re-opened on June 25 after closure for over three months due to the coronavirus pandemic in Santa Monica, Calif., on June 26, 2020. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)
People wearing facemasks walk past a health and safety guideline board and an open restaurant on Santa Monica Pier which re-opened on June 25 after closure for over three months due to the coronavirus pandemic in Santa Monica, Calif., on June 26, 2020. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)
More than 40 million people have lost work across the United States in recent weeks due to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. Governors have implemented stay-at-home measures, restricting the types of businesses that can remain open, leading to significant numbers of people being laid off.

The dire prediction comes as more GOP senators have expressed a willingness to pass a measure that would include more direct stimulus payments to people.

“It is going to happen, it’s just not going to happen yet,” Inhofe, a longtime senator who is also the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Nexstar last week. He said there were lengthy discussions about direct payments to Americans during a meeting with Republican senators last week.

Top Republican senators are supportive of sending out direct cash payments, according to Inhofe, but he stressed they are still working on the details of the measure.

“What you don’t want to do is have a reward given to people who don’t want to work,” Inhofe added.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, told a reporter in June that he supports the idea of sending out more direct payments and checks to eligible people, adding that the next stimulus package will be “very generous.”
Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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