By Laina G. Stebbins, Michigan Advance
The unemployment benefits of about 692,000 Michigan workers are in danger of being axed the day after Christmas if Congress does not act, the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) warned this week.
Without federal action to extend unemployment insurance (UI) provisions under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the unemployment benefits provided by CARES will also end once the program expires on Dec. 26.
That could result in a weekly void of over $220 million not being given to workers or flowing into the state’s economy.
“We’re hopeful that Congress will take action to protect access to critical unemployment assistance for Michigan workers whose jobs have been affected by COVID-19,” UIA Acting Director Liza Estlund Olson said in a statement Monday. “Allowing these programs to expire is not only harmful to Michigan workers, but it would be devastating to Michigan’s economy.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has repeatedly called upon Congress and the Legislature to provide further relief for unemployed Michiganders.
Legislation that would do that, but is unrelated to CARES, is currently pending before state lawmakers. This week is the last before the legislative term ends.
The federal CARES Act had expanded UI to provide two types of assistance to Americans affected by the COVID-19 pandemic: Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) for workers, including those not usually eligible for such benefits; and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), which gave an extra 13 weeks of benefits to those who used up their regular state claim and federal reimbursements for Work Share benefits.
If those IU benefits are not extended by Congress, the 487,000 PUA claimants and 205,000 PEUC claimants in Michigan who have not used up all eligible benefit weeks will no longer receive that assistance after Dec. 26.
The UIA estimates that the average weekly unemployment benefit in the state is currently around $319.
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