Benefits end
for thousands of
Unemployment benefits ended
two weeks ago for more than 4,000 jobless
Benefit eligibility was
curtailed with the expiration of the February 2009 federal stimulus law. Those
provisions - expanded by the Congress several times in the following months -
provided unemployed workers who exhausted regular state unemployment benefits of
10 to 26 weeks with another 28 to 73 weeks. The provisions also added an extra
$25 to the weekly benefit of every claimant regardless of the basic benefit
amount.
Unemployment benefits ended
with last week’s checks for all workers in the final phase of the extended
benefit program, and the $25 supplemental payment will not be provided to any
unemployed workers filing their initial benefit claims after May 29.
Claimants receiving benefits
under one of the four phases of the federal extended benefit program will
receive weekly checks until that phase is completed. Claimants in the
federal-state extended benefit program have had their benefits stopped.
Those claimants will not
qualify for new phases of extended benefits or see their checks restored under
the federal-state extended benefit program unless Congress votes to extend the
programs.
About 22,000 people have been
receiving extended federal benefits. The other 19,000 are still receiving
regular state benefits. Initial claims totaled just over 2,900 two weeks ago.
None of them, nor any initial claims filed since will receive the $25 supplement
without congressional action.
Instead of calling local
offices, claimants with questions are encouraged to visit the Idaho Department
of Labor Web site at labor.idaho.gov for the latest information regarding
extended unemployment insurance benefits.
"If Congress reaches an
agreement and resumes the extended benefit programs, we'll notify all the people
who will be affected," said Josh McKenna, acting benefits bureau chief.
"Unfortunately we won't know anything more until Congress takes action."
The $25 federal supplement
was injecting more than $1 million a week into the
Last week unemployment
benefits totaled more than $11 million – $4.7 million in regular benefits and
$5.9 million in federal extended benefits. Another $1 million was disbursed in
the $25 supplemental payment.
While employers appeared to
be returning to normal hiring patterns this spring after nearly two years of
cutbacks, the statewide unemployment rate was still 9 percent, and the
Conference Board’s job listing index had only two jobs listed in April for every
seven unemployed
The total number of