Title: How The $600 Pandemic Unemployment Payment Upended Household Economics : NPR
Headings: $600 A Week: Poverty Remedy Or Job Slayer?
Analysis
$600 A Week: Poverty Remedy Or Job Slayer?
The Coronavirus Crisis
'Tsunami' Of Evictions Feared As Extra $600 Unemployment Payments End
'I make less money' working than those who lost their jobs
The Coronavirus Crisis
As 'Hero' Pay Ends, Essential Workers Wonder What They Are Worth
When the unemployment office is competition for business owners
Universal basic income is here. Should it stay?
Coronavirus Live Updates
The End Of $600 Unemployment Benefits Will Hit Millions Of Households And The Economy
So who's getting the $600?
The economy now relies on it
Corrections July 28, 2020
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Content: Jobs disappeared for tens of millions of Americans. In response, the U.S. government mailed out stimulus checks to most households of $1,200, plus $500 for each child, and then added the $600 enhanced unemployment benefit. And just like that, the coronavirus brought universal basic income into the hands of tens of millions of Americans. Coronavirus Live Updates
The End Of $600 Unemployment Benefits Will Hit Millions Of Households And The Economy
Now, at least two studies show that America's poverty rate hasn't worsened significantly, despite the onslaught of the worst recession since the Great Depression. That's because this additional payment is keeping many low-income families afloat and is even allowing them to spend a little more than they normally would. By no stretch of the imagination is $600 a week — which works out to about a little more than $30,000 a year — a luxurious income. Economists say the spending exposes the large numbers of people living paycheck to paycheck and that it is time to examine policies to help with better distribution of wealth in this country. So who's getting the $600? What we know is that currently, about 30 million people in America are receiving it and the payment is set to expire July 31. Because of the way the state unemployment payment is scheduled, the last of the $600 would have gone out this past weekend just as there's evidence of more people losing jobs with the latest spikes in cases in the South and West.