Title: Nearly half of workers on unemployment could lose benefits end of year
Headings: Nearly half of people collecting unemployment benefits may not qualify for aid in 2021
Nearly half of people collecting unemployment benefits may not qualify for aid in 2021
A man fills out paperwork while waiting for his number to be called at an unemployment event in Tulsa, Oklahoma on July 15, 2020.
Don’t miss:
Here’s how unemployment benefits helped prop up the U.S. economy during a pandemic

Content: It provides up to 39 weeks of unemployment benefits to those who are not usually eligible for regular state aid but lose work, through no fault of their own, due to the coronavirus pandemic. It also provides supplemental weeks of aid to individuals who live in states that offer, through regular aid and 13 weeks of Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), less than 39 weeks of jobless benefits total. The unprecedented expansion of unemployment benefits in March ensures some groups disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus receive aid, including Black workers who are overrepresented in self-employed, contract or part-time roles and are more likely to experience longer stints of joblessness. Its expiration at the end of the year could severely impact some of the most vulnerable workers and result in a slow economic recovery, says Howard University professor and AFL-CIO chief economist William Spriggs. “The share of workers getting Pandemic Unemployment Assistance clearly points to the gap in the regular state programs that ignore workers and a number of low-wage industries,” Spriggs tells CNBC Make It. “ It shows we could and can devise access to programs to insure low-wage workers.” In May, the House of Representatives passed the HEROES Act, which includes continuing the expired $600 weekly benefit and extending federal PUA and PEUC enhancements to March 31, 2021. The Senate failed to take up the bill and instead introduced its own HEALS Act in late July, with a reduced weekly boost to state benefits and timeline that would allow all unemployment enhancements to expire at the end of December 2020. Congress and White House officials did not make progress on a new stimulus package before the Senate adjourned for recess until Labor Day. On August 8, President Trump signed a memorandum to create a new $300 supplemental wage to some jobless workers, including those receiving PUA benefits of at least $100 per week.