As California’s economy continues to struggle amid the COVID-19 pandemic, state officials will mark the Labor Day holiday by sending a $900 supplemental unemployment benefit to jobless residents — but many will not get the assistance right away, and nearly 200,000 people are not expected to get it at all.
The lump-sum payment covers three weeks of benefits retroactive to the week that ended Aug. 1 at the rate of $300 per week and is paid for by the federal government. An earlier federal program provided a $600 weekly supplemental benefit on top of normal state unemployment checks, but that program expired in July.
With Congress deadlocked over a proposal to extend that $600 benefit, an executive order by President Trump last month authorized $300 in weekly supplements, but with no guarantee of continuing beyond three weeks.
The latest payment “will provide much-needed relief” for California’s unemployed workers, said Dana Hadl, directing attorney for Bet Tzedek Legal Services in Los Angeles, but she said more is needed.
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