Title: Unemployment Insurance Extended Benefits will lapse too soon without policy changes
Headings: Unemployment Insurance Extended Benefits will lapse too soon without policy changes
Unemployment Insurance Extended Benefits will lapse too soon without policy changes
Lauren Bauer
Fellow - Economic Studies, The Hamilton Project
Wendy Edelberg
Director - The Hamilton Project
Senior Fellow - Economic Studies
Jana Parsons
Former Research Analyst - The Hamilton Project
What Are Unemployment Insurance Extended Benefits?
How Do Unemployment Insurance Extended Benefits Turn On…and Off?
How Have Insured Unemployment Rates Triggered Extended Benefits in Recent Years?
How do Insured Unemployment Rate Triggers and the Total Unemployment Rate Trigger Compare?
What is the Relationship Between EB Triggers and Long-Term Unemployment?
What should Policymakers Do?

Content: Unemployment Insurance Extended Benefits will lapse too soon without policy changes
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Unemployment Insurance Extended Benefits will lapse too soon without policy changes
Lauren Bauer, Wendy Edelberg, and Jana Parsons Thursday, August 6, 2020
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The unprecedented scale of income support provided to displaced workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic has made the economic downturn less severe than it might have been for millions of U.S. households. Although there has been considerable focus on the July 31, 2020 expiration of the federal government’s initial tranche of more generous unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, less attention has been paid to a looming crisis: the millions of workers who are at risk of losing UI when extended benefits lapse. Lauren Bauer
Fellow - Economic Studies, The Hamilton Project
Twitter
@laurenlbauer
Wendy Edelberg
Director - The Hamilton Project
Senior Fellow - Economic Studies
Twitter
WendyEdelberg
Jana Parsons
Former Research Analyst - The Hamilton Project
Twitter
JanaMKParsons
Under consideration in Congress are new automatic stabilizers for critical countercyclical programs, similar to what was highlighted in The Hamilton Project and Washington Center for Equitable Growth’s book Recession Ready. We show in this blog post that there is room for Congress to improve the triggers under current law that turn on and maintain the Unemployment Insurance Extended Benefits program to support the long-term unemployed when the labor market is weak. There is also room for states to take full advantage of provisions under current law by opting into more generous benefit extensions. In tandem, these federal and state actions would make it more likely that the U.S. unemployment insurance system doesn’t hinder the COVID-19 economic recovery. What Are Unemployment Insurance Extended Benefits? Unemployment insurance payments, including the $600 extra payments and expanded eligibility provided by the CARES Act, totaled $361 billion from March through July 2020, providing households with a substantial boost to income and increasing demand for goods and services. Under current state laws, unemployment insurance benefits are typically time-limited to between 12 and 28 weeks, with the majority of states offering 26 weeks of benefits.