Utah officials said Tuesday that pandemic-related jobless benefits paid out since April to eligible Utahns would keep flowing uninterrupted through early spring, as part of the $900 billion coronavirus relief package Congress passed on Monday.
That is, if President Donald Trump signs the measure, which he suggested late Tuesday he won’t do without big changes and increases in relief for Americans, decrying many of massive bill’s budget items as “wasteful spending and much more.”
The relief spending, embedded within an overall budget plan for the U.S. government, would add an extra $300 per week in jobless benefits on top of existing unemployment payments, but not until early January. That’s separate from the $600 one-time stimulus checks currently proposed to be paid out to most U.S. adults and children under the economic relief.
In rejecting the package, Trump urged Congress to instead boost that direct payment to $2,000 per person and spend more on small businesses, particularly restaurants hit hard in the pandemic.
State officials said Tuesday those $300 unemployment stipends — half of what they were under the now-expired CARES Act — would be added to weekly unemployment payments for ongoing recipients of traditional state jobless benefits, who numbered 17,374 as of last week.
The bonuses would also go out to self-employed workers and independent contractors as well as folks who’ve previously exhausted other unemployment help and were drawing emergency benefits under the now-expired CARES Act, officials said.
Those aid programs for gig workers and people on extended benefits are now set to expire the day after Christmas, with potential to send a total of up to 10,000 Utah residents off a financial cliff.
“Utah has proven to have a very resilient economy,” said Kevin Burt, executive director of Utah’s unemployment insurance system, noting the state’s jobless rate was at 4.3% in November— well below the national rate of 6.7%
“That being said, there certainly is a need for these benefits,” Burt noted. He later added in a statement the package would be “a great help to those who remain unemployed during this difficult pandemic.”
The latest jobs report for Utah estimates that a total 70,900 residents were out of work last month, while ongoing unemployment claims the state is receiving week to week were at 26,442, a record high compared to past years.
The economic relief package passed Monday would also extend how long recipients are eligible to get jobless benefits by 11 weeks, meaning the re-approved payments and the stipends would run at least until mid-March. Some extended benefits would last as long as April 5.
Approved with support of only one member of Utah’s congressional delegation, the new coronavirus pandemic relief was part of a new $2.3 trillion federal budget that still needs Trump’s approval. The president flatly rejected the bill late Tuesday, blaming Democrats for spending items he called “a complete disgrace.”
The state of Utah will also need guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor if the bill is ultimately approved for how states should dole out the newly authorized unemployment cash before it can start flowing. Burt said Tuesday that state officials are optimistic those rules will come soon after final passage.
New applicants for Utah unemployment aid will still be up against a three- to four-week delay in having their claims processed before any new benefits go out, Burt said. But once they do get payments, both the aid and the stipend would be paid up retroactively.
The new 5,593-page relief bill from Congress also proposes to beef up current payment of supplemental nutritional assistance — usually known as food stamps — by 15%, though it wouldn’t expand who is eligible.
It also puts $25 billion into rental assistance and lets recipients use that aid to cover past-due or upcoming rent, utility bills and other housing costs, while also extending a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moratorium on evictions set to expire Dec. 31. That will now be in effect until the end of January.
The rental assistance would be administered by the state of Utah, according to Congress, and paid directly to landlords on behalf of tenants.
Utah could receive as much as $213 million under that rental aid program, according to estimates from the National Low Incoming Housing Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Workforce Services said Tuesday that details were still emerging on how that program would be managed.
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