Unemployment Benefits Insurance Extension Approved into 2011

On December 17, 2010, President Obama has signed into law a bill that covers an extension of all the bush-era tax cuts plus some new and extended tax benefits. With this legislation he has essentially created a new 2011 Economic Stimulus package, estimated at around $858 billion. As part of this package, unemployment insurance benefits were extended once again, for an additional 13 months. Over 7 million Americans were at risk of losing their unemployment checks if the insurance was not extended. The latest benefits extension is only for those who have exhausted their 26 weeks of state jobless insurance or who are working their way through the federal tiers (see details below). Further, the maximum for unemployment benefits is still 99 weeks.

When the benefits expired earlier this year (Nov. 30) about 1 million people scattered across all 50 states stopped receiving unemployment checks, which provide an additional 34 and up to 53 weeks of benefits based on the state’s unemployment levels under the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC), which was enacted in 2008. After state and EUC benefits are used up, unemployed workers can receive benefits through the permanent federal-state Extended Benefits (EB) program, between 13 to 20 weeks, if their state’s unemployment insurance laws call for it, according to the National Employment Law Project (NELP).

Under the new tax law, states won’t have to show that their unemployment rates increased during the past two years to keep the EB program. In addition, the new legislation gives 10 states — Arkansas, Iowa, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming — an opportunity to provide the EB benefit to jobless workers, if they pass state legislation. Currently, 977,000 workers are receiving extended benefits, according to NELP.

Overall, half of all states qualify for the 99 weeks, because the unemployment rate is at least 8.5 percent with some of the highest unemployment in California, Georgia and Rhode Island, according to Labor Department statistics. Of those 25 states, 12 have jobless rates at least as high as the 9.8 percent national level, while nine are mired in double-digit unemployment.