New York State Team After nearly 18 months of expanded benefits due to COVID-19, New Yorkers may soon see a hit to their unemployment checks as most federal benefits programs expire in the coming weeks and months. After COVID-19 hit New York in March 2020, normal unemployment payouts more than doubled in size as the federal government rapidly approved pandemic-related relief for U.S. workers being laid off by the millions. Those federal programs built on the state’s baseline unemployment insurance allotment. They offered supplemental benefits in the form of extra cash or extended benefit periods, and made a way for self-employed individuals or freelance workers to get unemployment benefits as well.