Harsh Future For Many Soon to Lose Jobless Benefits -99 Weeks of Unemployment Benefits
Xernna Nieves, her four children and her sister have for the past eight months lived in a single, cramped hotel room just outside of Atlanta.
Nieves, her sister and the two youngest children, both girls, sleep four to a bed. The boys, 15 and 12, sleep on the floor. In such close quarters, “We’re getting on each others’ nerves,” Nieves said.
After nearly two years without a job, about the only thing that Nieves, 41, a former accounting worker, can count on is her unemployment insurance check: a $330-a-week lifeline that pays the rent, fills her gas tank and feeds her family when their $300-a-month food-stamp benefit runs out in mid-month.
Barring any further action from Congress, however, Nieves’ lifeline will be cut at the end of June.
That’s when she’s slated to join hundreds of thousands of jobless workers nationwide who’ve exhausted their maximum 99 weeks of unemployment benefits and face life with no meaningful income.
“What am I going to do then? That’s going to be the end of the line for me,” Nieves said, adding that she has no personal belongings she can sell for cash. “I got rid of all my stuff, so I don’t own anything. All I have is the clothes on me and my kids’ backs.”
While the economy created 290,000 new jobs in April, unemployment jumped to 9.9 percent as more than 800,000 people rejoined the labor force to renew their job search. Nearly 46 percent of the nation’s unemployed, or 6.7 million Americans, have been jobless for 27 weeks or more. Another 1.2 million are still discouraged and no longer looking.
Most states provide up_to 26 weeks of jobless benefits for qualified workers. Then the worst recession since the Great Depression forced Congress to step in and pay for extended coverage.(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com
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