When will unemployment benefits expire?

Federal unemployment benefits will officially be over on Labor Day, however, it might need to end  earlier than expected due to state administrative rules.

First week of September, last unemployment check

All states pay benefits at the end of every week, depending on each state this payment will be done either Saturday or Sunday. But, officials have set benefits’ expiration date on Monday, September 6, according to this year’s calendar for Labor Day.

Therefore, this has caused lots of misunderstanding among some citizens which have assumed they were going to be able to collect the aid for the second week of September, but reality is that the last paycheck released will be the one regarding to the first week of September, one or two days before the cutoff date.

This information has been confirmed by California’s Employment Development Department which have stated that “the federal government does not allow benefit payments to be made for weeks of unemployment after Sept, 4, even if you have a balance left on your claim at that time.”

Unemployment benefits: key for labor shortage?

Despite, Republicans have criticized the weekly $300 dollar aid for those unemployed as a mean for them not to look for a job, no notable impact of unemployment benefits is shown among the last labor data released. In fact, what data represents is a job increase under Biden administration, still less than the growth expected, but increasing at a constant pace.

President Joe Biden in a speech celebrating employment increase back in May, announced unemployment benefits were getting to an end with no extensions to be made.

A Highly unlikely extension

The president’s statement added to the fact federal lawmakers passed legislation twice in the past year to avert a benefits cliff, makes the possibility of an extension highly unlikely.

“I don’t think there’s any appetite for that,” Urban Institute labor economist Wayne Vroman said. “I think given the strength of the economic recovery and the labor market recovery, there’s basically no possibility of that happening.”

Unemployment benefits removal will impact on more than 11 million people, who will struggle to pay bills as they lose a portion of their aids, while in some cases the loss will be entire.

Unemployment benefits cutoffs per state

However, not all of the states are set to the September 6 cutoff, some of them –specifically twenty-six– ended federal benefits long ago during the months of June and July, including four states (Alaska, Arizona, Florida and Ohio) which only ended the weekly $300, but kept the rest of federal benefits the same.

Nevertheless, the states of Indiana, Maryland and Arkansas who also made the decision of taking away unemployment aid, reversed the situation reinstating the benefits.

States end dates for jobless aid