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More Answers About the Stimulus and Unemployment
The increased benefits should start showing up soon.
By Kimberly Lankford, Contributing Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance
March 5, 2009
When will I start to receive the $25 increase in weekly unemployment benefits? Do I need to do anything to get the extra money?
If you're receiving unemployment benefits, you don't need to take action to get the extra $25 per week. Funding for the extra benefits became available on February 22, after President Obama signed the $787-billion economic-stimulus package into law. But state unemployment-benefits offices are still in the process of updating their systems to add the extra money. Most states expect to start paying the increased benefits in the next week or so and will make retroactive payments of any benefits accrued since February 22.
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What are the rules for receiving the extended unemployment benefits that are included in the stimulus package?
A federal law passed last year provides an extra 20 weeks of emergency unemployment compensation to workers who exhausted their regular unemployment benefits, plus an additional 13 weeks of extended benefits for residents of states with high unemployment rates.
The emergency unemployment-compensation program was scheduled to expire on August 27, 2009, and the last day to apply for benefits was originally set to be March 31, 2009. As a result of the stimulus law, unemployed people who exhaust their regular state benefits now have until December 31, 2009, to apply for the extended benefits and can receive compensation until May 31, 2010.
The stimulus does not provide additional weeks of benefits for people who use their 33 weeks of emergency unemployment-compensation benefits; it just expands the dates that the program will be available. For more information, contact your state unemployment-benefits office.
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