Coming to a Pocket Near You: $300

Posted on | November 20, 2008 | No Comments

On Thursday, the Senate is expected to vote on extending unemployment benefits to those who have exhausted their benefits and have filed further claims.  And not a minute too soon since the number of new unemployment claims hit a 16-year high last week with 542,000 new applications (4 million people filed continuing claims, the highest since December 1982).

The legislation will not provide benefits to every one of the nearly 10.5 million people currently unemployed; it will help the approximately 4 million who are currently receiving or recently exhausted benefits.  With economists and the Federal Reserve expecting the national unemployment rate to climb as high as 8 percent by the end of 2009, this bit of legislation will certainly come in handy.

Here are the key points of the benefits extension measure.

• Extend unemployment benefits for 7 additional weeks for all those who have exhausted their benefits.

• For those in states with unemployment rates above 6 percent, extend benefits by an additional 13 weeks (For a total of 46 weeks of benefits).

• Benefits checks will average about $300 per week.

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