Workers lose $17 billion in unemployment aid due to delay in Congress, experts say

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Summer Lin
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Workers lost out on approximately $17.6 billion in unemployment aid due to the delay in signing the coronavirus relief package in December, according The Century Foundation.

Former President Donald Trump signed the coronavirus relief package into law on Dec. 27. The $900 billion coronavirus package, extended the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) programs, which expired on Dec. 26. It also reinstated $300 in weekly unemployment benefits that had expired earlier in 2020.

The Century Foundation found that because Trump delayed signing the bill and allowed benefits to lapse on Dec. 26, workers were shortchanged $17.6 billion in unemployment aid. The delay prevented states from preparing for the new eligibility rules in the law and the benefits were rolled out gradually in January. Around a quarter of states still haven’t resumed paying unemployment benefits and 12 states took three weeks or more to restart PUA payments, while 15 states needed at least three weeks, according to the foundation.

If the bill had been signed earlier and workers received benefits on time, $46.1 billion in aid would’ve been paid instead of the $28.7 billion that was paid during the first four weeks of January, according to the foundation, citing data from the Department of the Treasury.

About 900,000 workers filed for unemployment benefits for the first time during the week ending Jan. 23, according to the Labor Department. In addition to those claims, 426,856 people applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance for the first time.

Workers received 38% less in benefits than they were due to get in pandemic aid, the foundation said. Forty states were paying out PUA and 38 states were paying PEUC as of Jan. 30. Of the 40 states paying PUA, 12 had a two-week delay in restarting the programs.

In addition, because unemployment benefits can’t be paid for the week that began before the bill signed — Trump signed the bill at the start of a new week — jobless workers will only be able to get benefits for 10 weeks instead of 11, CNBC reported.

Around 12 million Americans lost out on those jobless benefits after the unemployment programs expired, according to a study by The Century Foundation.

Originally published

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