Unless last-minute Congressional negotiations to pass a new COVID relief bill succeed, more than 1 million Californians will lose their unemployment benefits at the end of this month.
Lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are currently debating a bipartisan bill that would extend two federal unemployment programs Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) into mid-April. Created in the spring by the federal CARES Act, both programs are set to expire on Dec. 26.
While policy experts are hopeful that relief will arrive soon, unemployment recipients say the uncertainty is causing profound stress. To be coming to what could be the end of my benefits just feels like the final nail in the coffin, said Koreatown resident Riordan Tenney.