Unemployment extension

  • Mar 28,2024
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The crisis of 2020 caused many problems around the world. One of the main damages it generated was economic. Many governments decided to grant citizens unemployment benefits. Among those administrations is that of the United States who through the  Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, approved by a majority in Congress on March 27, granted a sum of $600 per week for people who lost their jobs or they find themselves unemployed.

The aid contemplated in the CARES Act expired at the end of July and the representatives of the citizens met in the parliamentary chamber in search of a solution. Faced with the impossibility of reaching an agreement and the failure of the negotiations, President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders  in which he himself determined what would be the measures with which he would continue the aid in economic matters in the face of the crisis.

Among the actions taken by the president, the most important is the one that refers to the unemployment extension assistance. The first big news is that there will continue to be a weekly aid that will last until the beginning of December 2020 or until the funds from the Department of Homeland Security's Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) drop to $25 billion (currently at $70 billion). On the other hand, the sum that the American president decreed will be $400.

The figure represents a midpoint in the negotiations that Democrats and Republicans were leading until last weekend. The opposition party sought to keep the number at $600. However, the decision of the executive representative was not welcomed and has already received complaints about the way in which it was carried out and for the doubts it generates about how state governments will face the responsibility of paying their part. As established, of the $400, $100 must be granted by the administrations of each state.

In addition to the unemployment extension benefit, the decree admits the postponement of the payment of taxes, the protection against possible evictions of tenants and owners and the extension in the suspension of the payment of interests in the loans acquired by students. It is worth clarifying that in the latter case the amounts requested from private entities are not contemplated.

In an election year, American politics is shaken by a global health crisis and President Trump is ahead of the game with a decision to extend the unemployment fund.