During the peak of the pandemic, the CARES Act implemented three key unemployment assistance programs.
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), which extends help to the self-employed, independent contractors (including gig workers), and others who do not qualify for regular state unemployment insurance (UI).
Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), which provided a weekly supplement of $ 600 from April to July 2020, although that aid was reduced to $ 300 in federal aid legislation enacted in late December; and it was expanded by the American Rescue Plan Act in March of this year.
And Pandemic Extended Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), which provides federally funded extended benefits to workers who are still unemployed after exhausting regular state unemployment benefits.
But New York won’t extend benefits beyond Sept. 4, when they end in full nationwide, despite the state’s high unemployment rate. Still, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration appears unwilling to follow President Joe Biden’s recommendation to states whose economic recovery has stalled.
The Department of Labor estimates that between 750,000 and 800,000 New York City residents will lose all their unemployment benefits, and the remaining 120,000 city residents who receive regular state unemployment insurance benefits will lose the $ 300 weekly supplement funded by the federal government.
THE PROGRAMS EXPIRING IN NEW YORK STATE ARE:
- Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA)
- Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC)
- Extended Benefits (EB)
- $ 300 Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC)
- $ 100 Mixed Unemployment Compensation (MEUC)
While the deadline is just around the corner, if you haven’t filed your claim yet and have started receiving the money, you have an additional 30 days to sign up for the program and receive retroactive payments from the previous weeks you qualify for. Your claim will be evaluated by the Department of Labor.
You may also qualify for standard Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits after the September 5 deadline, but you must not have received more than 26 weeks (or 104 effective days) of unemployment benefits this year.
Of the 7.5 million Americans currently receiving the additional payments, according to The Century Foundation, about one-tenth reside in New York State. Therefore, the impact is expected to be particularly severe in our region.
Not surprisingly, those who have endured the brunt of job displacement will be disproportionately affected. These are primarily lower-paid workers of color, including those who worked in the entertainment, hospitality, local services, retail, and arts and culture industries.
As the New York City Affairs Center recently reported, the second-quarter (April-June) unemployment rate for black New Yorkers was 12 percent, 12.4 percent for Latino New Yorkers, 10, 7 percent for Asians and others and 9.6 percent for white workers.
According to estimates by the Department of Labor, this would be the impact of the total loss of benefits:
- 750,000-800,000 city residents will lose $ 200- $ 300 in average weekly PUA or PEUC benefits plus the $ 300 weekly supplement (FPUC). Result: $ 375 million – $ 480 million in reduced benefits.
- 120,000 residents will continue to receive regular state unemployment benefits averaging $ 290 per week, but they will lose the weekly supplement of $ 300 – that’s $ 36 million in reduced benefits.
- During the last 17 months, from April 2020 to August 2021, New York City residents received an average of $ 3.15 billion each month in unemployment benefits. Following the September 6 expiration of federal unemployment benefits, the monthly amount will plummet to $ 156 million.
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