U.S. lawmakers seeking to extend unemployment benefits in the forthcoming COVID-19 relief package have acted too late to dodge delaying payments to jobless workers, according to labor experts.
“They should have passed something before Thanksgiving for this to be avoided,” Elizabeth Pancotti, a policy adviser to the labor advocacy think tank Employ America, told the Washington Examiner.
Two unemployment benefit programs created by the March CARES Act aid workers who normally are ineligible for such relief.
The first is the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Assistance program, which provides an additional 13 weeks in benefits. The second is the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which is a new category for workers sidelined by the pandemic, such as gig workers whose work dried up. Both of these programs expire on Dec. 26, the day after Christmas.
“It’s truly terrifying that 12 million people are going to [be] left with nothing the day after Christmas,” Pancotti said.
The Century Foundation found that a total of 12 million people would either lose their PUA and PEUC benefits on Dec. 26. These benefits, on average, pay out $240 per week for PUA and $317 for PEUC, the foundation reported. There is not yet an estimate on the cost to extend these provisions.
Congress has yet to extend the measures but could do so over the next few days. If lawmakers succeed in that goal, the payments will be subjected to other delays because they failed to act sooner.
For starters, states have already set their computers to end providing the benefits on Dec. 26, and it will take time to reprogram them, which will vary from state to state as some are better equipped than others to make adjustments.
Still, given that government workers will take time off for the holidays, there is likely not enough time to make these program changes before Dec. 26, according to Matt Weidinger, a Rowe Fellow who researches unemployment at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute.
“The more time that Congress gives states to make the adjustments to these programs, the better,” he said.
Pancotti estimates that some unemployed workers could wait up to three or four weeks before states have their computer systems up and running again.
Weidinger also warned that the sheer number of workers claiming benefits could slow down the process of getting payments out.
“This year might be different because there are so many more people collecting benefits,” he said.
State unemployment agencies have been overwhelmed since the pandemic hit the nation as tens of millions of workers have lost their jobs and the agencies have struggled to put them in the system. These names might have to be reentered, a time-consuming process, if jobless workers are required to reapply for the renewed benefits, Pancotti said.
“If it is the case that these people have to reapply, I would expect to see six weeks of lags in getting these payments [out],” she said.
The unemployment system has also been rife with fraudulent claims, which complicated getting payments out in a timely manner. This problem will persist if Washington approves an extension and the payments are renewed.
“That is going to play a role … and will complicate things,” Weidinger said.
These factors are why Congress should have acted sooner to extend the relief, according to the experts. Pancotti hopes that the Labor Department counters the slow pace of lawmakers and acts quickly in administering the payments.
“I would hope that the Department of Labor would understand that given the holidays, given the rent being due on Jan. 1, that they would do whatever they can to write regulations that will prioritize these workers getting paid,” she said.
