Extra Unemployment Benefits Could Be Reduced To $300 Weekly

Unemployed workers who were forced out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic will begin to receive an extra $200 or $300 a week in unemployment benefits, a huge difference from the current $600-a-week policy that will expire this month.

The prior relief bill took effect in March. This gave out-of-work citizens an extra $600 a week on top of their state payment. However, under the new bill, Americans will still collect additional funds on their unemployment checks, but this would apply to fewer citizens.

Republicans are in support of cutting the funding, claiming that it’s a disincentive to find a job since some workers receive more money than they made from their jobs.

According to a CNBC analysis, the new proposal outlined Thursday by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin indicates that the average person could expect to get $310 a week from an upcoming relief package.

Ernie Tedeschi, an economist at Evercore ISI, says that cutting aid after July would likely hurt Americans and the economy, which has already been hurt by people cutting spending.

“That strikes me as fundamentally unfair, that workers wouldn’t get their full wages for something that was not their fault and was in most cases due to a public health necessity,” Tedeschi said of mandated business closures. “And it seems both economically unnecessary and economically hurtful to the U.S.”