About 1.3 million unemployed Americans are set to lose their extended jobless benefits by the end of December if Congress doesn't renew the program, delivering another blow to struggling households hit with recent cuts in food stamps.
Another 850,000 people would run out of unemployment insurance from January through March when their roughly 26 weeks of state benefits end, according to the National Employment Law Project.
"There's a view … that it would be too heavy a blow both to the economy and to struggling unemployed families to have both food stamp benefits and unemployment benefits all (be cut) within two months of each other," says Bob Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
On Nov. 1, a temporary increase in food stamp benefits was phased out, affecting more than 47 million Americans.
Some of those affected also receive jobless benefits, NELP says, though it had no specific data.
In 2008, in the middle of the recession, the federal government began providing up to a year or more of "emergency" unemployment benefits to supplement the typical 26 weeks of coverage that states provide.
In January, Congress renewed that program as part of the "fiscal cliff" deal on tax increases and spending cuts, but scaled it back. This year, the unemployed have received 14 to 47 weeks of emergency benefits, depending on their state's jobless rate, NELP figures show.
Those benefits are slated to end Dec. 28, abruptly cutting off payments to the 1.3 million people already receiving them and ensuring that another 850,000 will get no more checks when their 26 weeks of state benefits expire between January and March.Read the rest of the story HERE.
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