More states finally paying $600 extra in unemployment aid
Source: AP
By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and SUSAN HAIGH
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The bills are mounting for Justin Conrad, who lost his warehouse job three weeks ago and is anxiously awaiting his first state-provided unemployment check. Compounding his stress, his state, Connecticut, can’t say when Conrad will get the additional $600 a week in benefits that the federal government is providing in an economic relief package.
“I have no money coming in,” says the 39-year old in Norwich, Connecticut. “And this week I have to pay my utility bill,” he added with a nervous laugh. “With nothing coming in and very little anyone can say, it’s hard.”
Connecticut’s labor officials are scrambling to reprogram their computers to handle the additional unemployment payouts. Its decades-old system can process weekly payments only in the hundreds of dollars, or three digits. Problem is, the additional $600 from the federal government extends the payments into four digits.
Most other states have started to provide the extra federal jobless aid, though many did so only this week, nearly a month after businesses began shutting down across the country because of the coronavirus outbreak. At least 32 states will provide the extra federal benefits by the end of this week. California, the most populous state, provided its first extra payment on Sunday.
FILE - In this April 14, 2020, file photo, Hillsborough County Library Service employee Stephen Duran, right, hands unemployment paperwork to residents at the Jimmie B. Keel Regional Public Library in Tampa, Fla. Most states have started to provide the extra jobless aid, though many did so only this week, nearly a month after businesses began shutting down across the country as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)
Read more: https://apnews.com/827d97d1facdaadea86902f0cf11683b
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