Are Your Unemployment Benefits Ending? Look at These to Make Ends Meet

• Author: Chris Remington
• Posted: 2024-05-04

Earlier in 2021, President Joe Biden signed off on a comprehensive COVID-19 aid bill. This bill, among many other provisions, extended unemployment benefits for the millions of Americans who are unemployed due to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

The intended end date for these benefits was the week ending on September 4, 2021. This was set so far in advance because previous bills' efforts had fallen short. Almost entirely on partisan lines, governors across the country have been nixing these enhanced benefits.

Are My Unemployment Benefits Ending?

In order to understand whether or not your own benefits are ending, you'll first need to understand some of the jargon. There is the first line of unemployment insurance at the state level. This will be named differently depending on the state in which you currently have an unemployment benefits claim. Most states are retaining their original unemployment insurance programs.

However, most people receiving unemployment insurance benefits receive Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) of an additional $300 per week to whatever they receive in state assistance. This FPUC portion will be nixed if your claim is in a state with a governor who has elected to kill benefits early.

There's also Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), a program designed to bring unemployment assistance to groups of people traditionally not eligible for it. This includes freelancers, students, people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and more. There's also the Mixed Earners' Unemployment Compensation (MEUC) program. This adds a federal supplement of $100 per week for those who had both freelancing earnings and W-2 earnings before the public health emergency was declared in 2020. Unfortunately, these programs are also going away in states opting to kill enhanced unemployment assistance.

What Do I Do if My State Is Ending Unemployment Early?

By law, states have to give you thirty days of notice before terminating unemployment benefits. Unfortunately, this may not have been followed universally. If your benefits are being terminated unexpectedly early, there are a few steps you can take.

First, work to preserve your current standard of living. The easiest costs to have taken care of by the federal government at the moment are communications and health costs.

For communications, there's the federal LifeLine program. This provides you with free cellphone service. At a minimum, this is a 1000-minute, 4.5 GB data, and unlimited text message plan. Currently, the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) is offering up to $50 per month of federal assistance towards fixed home Internet costs. If you first qualify for LifeLine, you'll automatically qualify for this assistance.

For healthcare, check out Healthcare.gov to see what subsidies you may be eligible for. Unfortunately, most states that are opting out of this program are also opting out of providing Medicaid to those who are monetarily eligible. However, they are not able to opt out of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Should I Tap My Retirement Account?

Many people have stocks, bonds, IRAs, or other investment vehicles containing some money from previously-held jobs. A common question for financial advisors is whether it's wise to withdraw money from these types of accounts during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Of course, if you truly have no other means of subsistence, this may end up being a necessity to avoid homelessness. In that case, it may be wise to withdraw the minimum necessary to get by. However, keep in mind that these accounts make you money by compounding gains over a period of typically decades.

Removing any money means you're essentially selling off stock or mutual funds in return for cash. This will kill the future of this money, even if you reinvest the same amount of money later in the year. It's not a decision to be taken lightly, but there isn't any objectively "correct" answer to this question.

Staying Afloat During COVID-19

There's no question that many households have felt the fiscal strain applied by COVID-19 emergency measures. Remember that you're not alone if you're struggling financially, and there are assistance programs available from both the government and from private charity agencies. Chances are that there are more opportunities to receive benefits and avoid economic catastrophes than you may realize now.

If you're fortunate enough to have spare money, now is one of the best times to invest. Though markets are turbulent, there's a good amount of money to be made across the board.