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The pandemic devastated the economy in 2020.
Americans owe nearly $1 trillion in credit card debt, an all-time high, according to the Federal Reserve. Much of that debt was piled on over the last half of 2020 when many people on unemployment lost the CARES Act s $600 supplemental. When I lost my job in April, my unemployment was $65 a week, but I was getting the extra $600 which was helping some, said Mary Davis in Michigan.
Davis struggles with a disability and was only able to work part-time before the pandemic. When she lost her part-time retail job in April of 2020, initially, she was getting the $600 CARES Act supplemental and had an income of $665 a week. However, her monthly food stamps and other low-income benefits were taken away. She was on the hook for her full rent, which was $1,100 a month, in addition to paying for her utilities and food for herself and her young son.
Even with a second stimulus bill, unemployed Americans still struggle to get by
By: Alicia Nieves
and last updated 2020-12-22 16:45:11-05
It took Congress almost nine months, but they have finally agreed on another stimulus pkg. The deal provides a one-time stimulus check, extends the eviction mortarium another month, and adds an additional $300 supplemental to extended unemployment benefits.
In total, itâs a $900 billion plan that now protects roughly 40 million Americans from potentially being evicted from their homes and prevents 12 million Americans from losing out on unemployment benefits.
âIt is a success and a win because that wonât happen,â said Stephanie Freed, âBeyond that, itâs not much of a win.â
To qualify for the additional $100, workers must have received at least $5,000 in self-employment income in 2019. Those eligible will be able to receive the extra money for the weeks from Dec. 27, 2020 through March 14, 2021, according to the bill text.
State decision
The Covid relief bill also gives states the ability to opt out of giving mixed earners the extra $100. This isn t due to the cost to the states the money is from the federal government but because of the administrative work it will take to get the system up and running. Some of it is just that it s really hard to implement, said Michele Evermore, senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project. [States] are going to have to get their computers to talk to each other in a way that they hadn t before.
Brendan Smialowski-Pool/Getty Images
A slew of economic-relief programs created as part of the CARES Act are set to expire at the end of the year.
If programs like the federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) go away it would leave millions of unemployed Americans in the lurch.
Congress needs to renew these programs to protect Americans who need them the most.
Max Burns is a veteran Democratic strategist. This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
Twelve million of out-of-work Americans are staring down disaster.
These unemployed workers will face financial catastrophe on December 26 when two critical programs created to soften the blow of the COVID