MADISON, Wis. — As the Delta variant continues to surge in Wisconsin and across the country, several federal unemployment benefit programs put in place last year to help people deal with the effects of the pandemic are set to expire this weekend.
In addition to the extra $300 weekly benefit added on to state-level benefits, several other programs are set to expire on September 4, including Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), the second of which provided benefits to those who wouldn’t normally be eligible like gig workers, self-employed, and people who quit their job to care for children or health concerns related to the pandemic.
Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development says pending claims for weeks before September 5 will still be paid out for each week that they’re eligible.
The benefits are ending amid an ongoing backlog of appeals in Wisconsin, as well as rising claims of overpaid benefits leaving people potentially thousands of dollars in debt for mistakes many say weren’t made clear to them by the state.
How many people are using them?
About 7.5 million people nationwide will lose their federal benefits, according to the New York Times., with millions of others who will remain on state-level unemployment benefits but see the extra $300 from the federal government get cut from their weekly check.
In Wisconsin, far fewer people are filing initial claims for unemployment than at this point last year, with 6,781 new initial claims filed the week ending August 28. Another 47,832 people received their regular weekly unemployment check, down from 149,573 people at this time in 2020.
But while that’s far fewer people than in 2020, the number of people on unemployment benefits remains roughly twice as high as pre-pandemic levels, according to state data. For the last week of August in 2019, there were just 3,787 new claims and 23,279 ongoing claims.
Can states prolong these benefits themselves?
The Biden Administration has encouraged governors who still have a high unemployment rate in their state to use their federal COVID relief funds to extend programs like PUA. Gov. Tony Evers’ office did not respond when asked if he had considered using relief funds to extend those programs in Wisconsin.
26 states, all with Republican governors, have already ended the extra federal unemployment benefit early. Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a bill that would have ended the extra $300 benefit early in June, which Gov. Evers vetoed.
What is Wisconsin’s current unemployment rate?
Wisconsin’s unemployment rate has largely bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, according to the state’s latest data. In July, the unemployment rate remained steady at 3.9%, just slightly above the 3.5% rate in February 2020 just before the pandemic hit Wisconsin.
Since May, people drawing unemployment benefits are required to make four work searches a week to stay eligible; on Thursday, Wisconsin’s Job Center dashboard listed 117,442 open jobs statewide.
In Wisconsin, additional factors are contributing to an ongoing labor shortage, like an overall aging workforce and many people who have been unable to return to work for a variety of issues. Wisconsin’s Center for Investigative Journalism talked to several of these people for whom barriers like child care, transportation, and a mismatch of opportunities for skillsets have continued to delay the job search.
This coverage will be updated.
Are you about to lose federal unemployment benefits but have been unable to return to the workforce? Are there barriers you’ve faced to returning to work? We can be reached at news3investigates@wisctv.com
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