Weekly Check Background
On August 8, I noted Trump Signs 4 Executive Orders, One Requires States Pay 25% of the Cost.
The LWA executive order provided $400 weekly pandemic assistance to the unemployed, retroactive to August 1, but required states to kick in $100 of it. Only West Virginia did.
Effectively, the $400 weekly benefit morphed into $300.
The executive order made up for 50% of the loss of the $600 weekly pandemic assistance benefits that expired on July 25.
Out of Time and Money
The max amount of the Trump’s LWA executive order payout was $44 billion.
The money (and the clock) just ran out.
CNET reports the $300 Unemployment Payment Ended in Some States.
Trump’s executive memo called for the federal government to supply $300 a week in extra unemployment benefits for six weeks, starting retroactively on Aug. 1. Those states that already received and sent out Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) to unemployment recipients have reached their six weeks, meaning the bonus checks will come to an end soon.
Nevada applied for assistance on Sept. 2 and is waiting for approval, and South Dakota is the only state to choose not to apply for assistance. Arizona was the first state to send out the $300 bonus, on Aug. 17.
Ten State Ending LWA
Six Weeks Have Passed
Six weeks ended on September 5 if payments started on time or were issued retroactively.
Some states with antiquated systems have yet to send out a check.
For those states, it is unclear when the money will be sent, or if it’s weekly or in a lump sum.
Restrictions
There will be some people receiving unemployment payments who will not be able to take advantage of additional funding. The US Department of Labor (PDF) on Aug. 11 sent out guidance about the eligibility requirements for the LWA. Claimants would have to be eligible for a minimum $100 from a state’s unemployment benefits program to qualify for the additional $300 federal funds. This would disqualify 1 million people, according to the New York Times.
What About Regular State Assistance
Most states provide 26 Weeks of Unemployment Benefits.
Under the CARES Act responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, all states provide 13 additional weeks of federally funded Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Assistance (PEUC) benefits to people who exhaust their regular state benefits, followed by additional weeks of federally funded EB in states with high unemployment (up to 13 or 20 weeks depending on state laws). Under the Act, through the end of this year, some people who exhaust all these benefits, and many others who have lost their jobs for reasons arising from the pandemic but who are not normally eligible for UI in their state, are eligible for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA). Without new legislation, however, no PEUC or PUA benefits will be paid after December 31, 2020.
Extended Benefits (EB) have triggered on in 46 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Through the end of 2020, additional weeks of federal benefits are also available.
Click on the above link for an interactive map of benefits.
Notable Exceptions to 26 Weeks Unemployment Insurance
- South Carolina and Missouri provide up to 20 weeks of UI
- Arkansas provides up to 16 weeks of regular benefits
- Alabama currently provides up to 14 weeks of UI for new enrollees, with an additional five-week extension for those enrolled in a state-approved training program
- Florida currently provides up to 12 weeks of UI
- North Carolina currently provides up to 12 weeks of UI
States get 50% of their regular UI in extended benefits with a max at 13 weeks.
Because Florida only offers 12 weeks of UI, Floridians only get another 6 weeks of federally funded extended benefits. North Carolina gets another 9.6 weeks for reasons I don’t know.
The extended benefit pays state benefit guidelines. North carolina has a maximum weekly benefit of $350.
Max Benefits Approaching Exhaustion
- Florida: 12 UI + 6 extended + 13 PEUC for a total of 31.
- North Carolina: 12 UI + 9.6 extended + 13 PEUC for a total of 34.6.
- Alabama: 14 UI + 7 extended + 13 PEUC for a total of 34.
Some workers in those states will exhaust all benefits in October.
Mish
Chiild when do I get my check???
That is strictly the fault of Pelosi and the Democrats who have failed their constituents and refused to agree to 4 bills that would have restored Federal support to unemployed people because the bills did not contain a bail out for liberal cities and states.
Trump’s executive order was never more than a typical populist sop to the poorest of the poor in the run-up to an election. There’s still time for one more, and I wouldn’t be surprised if next week The Donald become the Great Savior and mandates another hundred bucks.
What a load ‘o crap.
My POV…….no wonder the Fed is leveraging, because the freaking congress can’t do anything.
The only time they can be bothered…..is when the smart guys from the Treasury and the Fed and Wall Street sit them down in a room and tell them the system is locking up and that they’re about to be all hanging from lampposts if they don’t act.
Does Fat Donnie from Queens actually get credit for this?
What I mean is: do most recipients of the money credit him or do they credit some mysterious power?
I’d say that when you’re hurting and the Congress is in austerity mode (for the little people anyway) and the POTUS sends you a check to pick up the slack, any amount is welcome…..and yes it probably nets him some points.
I don’t even think it was a terrible thing for him to have done….but it definitely turned out to be meaningless, because it wasn’t enough to matter. But I’d say he gets points for it.
Sooner or later, much more money will have to be printed and helicoptered..to businesses and to individuals. We are like Wile E. Coyote, having run off a cliff and now standing on little but thin air, as far as I can see. It would be nice if more than 20% of the gravy could reach Main Street next time, but that ain’t how we roll here.
Mish, shouldn’t you return to the Chicago area to run a soup kitchen or food bank? Even Al Capone did that much for the community and he only hid out west as far as Cicero.
Is it “redistribution of wealth” when a Republican does it? Asking for a friend…
a better question may be why redistribution (of monies from rich to non-rich) has such a negative connotation when funneling (of monies from non-rich to rich) is rarely mentioned but is unquestionably many times more pernicious and egregious
The economic news seems very disconnected. Yesterday BoA reported higher combined debit/credit card usage in August was higher than prior year – not sure of the % – maybe 2%. The Bank noted that the items purchased different from a year ago. At the same time another 800K joining the unemployed is not good news Are folks now simply starting to max out credit cards for basic living items?
For a lot of people with good jobs it’s been a great time to sit back, enjoy not commuting daily and keep collecting a good salary. For the everyday Joe hourly worker life has been hard. Companies thought maybe they could ride it out and keep their salary staff on board until this passes. It’s not passing. Heading into fall with a healthy base of Covid cases too jumpstart a massive resurgence and a president actively downplaying the threat. Those salary workers are starting to get trimmed. Free cash flow is going to be a serious issue. Credit cards are a band aid for a few months.
I don’t believe that CC companies know what items a consumer purchases. All they see is the business name and the total $$.
The news shows always have a few sad, sob stories about people who have lost their jobs and aren’t getting any unemployment daily.
I continue to wonder why everyone is so calm from people on the verge of homelessness to business owners claiming that they are going to have to shutdown permanently, losing all their investment.
The media tells us things are awful and yet the vast majority of people seem so disinterested. We’re coming up on election season. Why aren’t people marching the streets, threatening to vote the politicians out for destroying their lives?
Vast majority of Americans want more economic aid to offset Covid
Voters blame Republicans and Democrats equally for stimulus stalemate in FT-Peterson survey
September 22, 2020
Why should some companies be allowed to pay no taxes when they have employees on public assistance ? I am not surprised people want more economic aid when companies like Amazon don’t pay a dime in federal taxes or companies like Wal-mart have people on federal assistance programs.
The whole corporate tax issue is just a diversion anyway. Obviously corporations are fictional entities, and can’t actually “pay” taxes. The whole points of taxing corporations is to make the extent of taxes paid by individuals invisible by hiding them in the costs of what they purchase. If Amazon paid billions more in taxes, those billions would just be tacked on to the prices of the goods they sell, and the consumers, who are the only real taxpayers, would pay them in the end.
Don’t get me wrong, though. I’m not opposed to higher taxes on Amazon. Under the theory that you should tax what you want less of, I always favor consumption taxes rather than income taxes or property taxes. I tend to lean more in favor of luxury taxes, specifically targeted to high end goods, but hey, I’ll take a tax on Amazon (and Walmart), which will jack up the prices of Chinese goods.
People are calm because That Can’t Happen To Americans, and if it does, you deserve it, and they personally don’t deserve it.
Republicans wanted to pass about 500 billion package with more PPP loans, more federal unemployment benefits, money for schools and liability limits for companies following local Covid instructions but Democrats STOPPED it since Democrats stomped their feet and demanded 2 trillion or people get NOTHING.
On Democrats 2 trillion was massive bailout for Democrat states who were in severe problems already because millions of illegal immigrants cost a lot of money and having a sanctuary city and state policies increases crime and causes rich taxpayers to move away and now BLM riots and looting and increased crime after police defunding and police afraid to go to some neighborhoods due to attacks against them has increased crimes even more at 50%+ compared to the same months last year so even more tax-payers are fleeing.
Some parts of San Francisco have 75% more burglaries than last year and this is in places where houses cost 2-5 million.
Democrats also had their 2 trillion demands stuffed to the gills with pet projects and “never let crisis go to waste” style democrat tactics.
If media was honest Pelosi would be asked about blocking almost 500 billion in Covid help EVERY DAY.
Why aren’t they protesting? Perhaps its a fear of the little green men in minivans grabbing people off the street….
There is only a finite amount that Trump can do without Congress, and he’s reached it. He probably bought some votes with his $3-400 a week, even for a short time, and the fact that the money ran out will be blamed on the Democrats.
OH THANK GOODNESS This will get me thru! Oh wait 200.00??? Trump pledges to send $200 drug discount cards to Medicare recipients weeks before election; funding source unclear. Unclear? As if funding in this house of cards economy has ever been clear.
On teevee I see ads for prescription drug discount cards is this the same thing or do I get 200.00?? Let me know soon so I can upgrade my cat food.
The $200 drug discount is a Co-Pay credit, so 1st-must be prescribed for your condition 2nd-most co-pay/help offers disqualify Medicare enrollees 3rd- NOT useable for generic meds & 4th…most drug discounts are available WITHOUT DJTs help….just apply directly to companies
This is a sad story. But it shows why the pharmacy/drug stakeholders will fight tooth & nail to maintain the current way of doing business. They are making too much money and all the politicians parasites leeching off of them are also.
Sticker Shock in the Pharmacy
For chronically ill patients, decisions about whether to pay or go without medications are life-or-death battles that must be fought over and over again.
Sept. 23, 2020
When Caiti Derenze, a lawyer in Jersey City, N.J., went to Walgreens to refill her insulin prescription in July, she was met with a nearly $300 bill.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I only paid like $50 last month. What happened?’” Ms. Derenze said. “It feels like a punch in the gut, to be told a medication you need to live costs so much money.”
Trying to find the answer set in motion a wild-goose chase. Walgreens directed Ms. Derenze to her insurance company, Aetna. Aetna sent her to Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefit manager. Express Scripts said it needed prior authorization from her doctor.
….
200 is enough to get a pawnshop .38, a handfull of shells, and a quart of liquor. If you get sick, it’s your patriotic duty to die cheaply.
Well, I would say 200 dollars given by Trump is better than the ZERO dollars Democrats gave people for medication.
Democrats are even more controlled by big Pharma than Republicans.
Trump already also authorized drug imports from Canada and other countries with much cheaper drug prices than USA and Trump also signed an executive order that drug companies MUST charge the same price for drugs in USA that they charge in other countries so if Germans get some drug from the drug company for one dollar a pill and Americans are currently paying 30 dollars a pill the drug company must sell the drug to Americans for 1 dollar per pill from now on.
Drug companies are fighting the executive order in courts.
The question is why didn’t Trump introduce these changes in the first 6 months or even first year of his term? Why wait till a couple of months prior to voting for his reelection?
The funding source was quite clear, all the money he is saving the program by renegotiating and lowering drug prices, that money saved will be given back to the members via a $200 card to assist with expenses. More to come as the rest of his executive order kicks in in the coming year. Well if the communist don’t get in office that is.
Enacting MedicareForAll or Socialist Medicine – as in Jonas Salk Socialist Medicine, as in healthcare we had once had with NO PROFIT MOTIVE before Ronald Reagan moved to legalize for profit medicine – would be the best thing we could do to help the entire nation of America recover from not just Covid but it’s economic problems before Covid.
We now know America performed so bad vs Covid because such a large segment of it’s population has no access healthcare becuase of it’s Capitalist Anti Socialist Medical System which is consistently rate as Worst In The World at Twice The Cost vs other nations.
Socialist Medical Care such as MedicareForAll would drastically reduce the cost of hiring American Workers as job creating employers no longer have to pay such fantastic amounts to Insurance Corporations who’s job is to deny Americans access to healthcare, and this means more Jobs For America and Better Pay. It would drastically INCREASE your take home pay (unless you work for a Monopoly Drug Co or Insurance Corporation or Hedge Fund owned Company operating For Profit “healthcare”).
Socialist Medical Care such as MedicareForAll would also MASSIVELY REDUCE GOVT EXPENDITURES. Your City and State governments would save SUPER MASSIVE AMOUNTS and would not have to raise you taxes because their insurance costs would MASSIVELY DROP because of Socialist Medicine, MedicareForAll. That is because MedicareForAll costs only 60% of other forms of “healthcare” options mostly because they are not really even healthcare options unless you think insurance is the exact same thing as healthcare, which of course it is not.
In addition tto MASSIVELY REDUCING GOVT DEFICITS, Socialist Medicine – MedicareForAll – would EXTEND YOUR LIFE AND AND SAVE ABOUT 100,000 PEOPLE A YEAR FROM DYING.