unemployment

7 Dads on How They’re Coping With Unemployment

By Gertrude Aziz 4 days ago

The unemployment rate in America is at an all-time high. Depending on whose numbers you trust, the pandemic has pushed between 18 and 30 million Americans out of the workforce. And these concerning numbers aren’t exclusive to the U.S. The COVID pandemic has made jobs disappear across the globe, in industries ranging from photography to farming and financial work. Millions are struggling. Coping with unemployment is never easy. 

Women have lost the majority of jobs under the pandemic but men haven’t been spared from unemployment. While the job loss seen during COVID is unprecedented and many employees will return once the pandemic is controlled, research suggests that the loss of a job hits fathers particularly hard. When men are fired or furloughed, the stress it creates can lead to a number of psychological and physical effects, including weight gain or loss, depression, anxiety, sleep troubles, and high blood pressure.

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Here’s what you need to know about unemployment benefits eligibility

By Gertrude Aziz 4 days ago

Some of the requirements for unemployment insurance have changed and the more than 30 million Americans receiving benefits will have to check more boxes to stay eligible.

When applying for unemployment benefits you have to file a claim with your state’s unemployment insurance program as soon as possible after losing your job or getting hours cut.

Many Americans who are ineligible for unemployment insurance (UI) may qualify for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) that covers self-employed individuals, contractors, and others and is available until the end of January 2021.

Employment insurance claims in Canada during the Coronavirus pandemic
Employment insurance claims in Canada during the Coronavirus pandemic

What are the requirements for UI?

The first requirement is that you should have lost your job through no fault of your own and you lost your job because of a lack of available work.

The second requirement is to meet the criteria for wages earned or time worked. In most states,

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Trump’s executive order on unemployment could take months to implement; hundreds quarantining in Ga. school district

By Gertrude Aziz 6 days ago

After weeks of stalled congressional negotiations over a new coronavirus stimulus package, President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders Saturday evening as the U.S. was approaching 5 million cases of COVID-19.

Trump, repeatedly referring to the coronavirus as the “China virus,” said the orders would provide an additional $400 per week in unemployment benefits, suspend payments on some student loans through the end of the year and protect renters from being evicted from their homes.

“We’re coming back very strong. We’re doing well with the virus,” Trump said, even as the U.S. was leading nations worldwide in confirmed cases and deaths from COVID-19 and confirmed an additional 50,000 new cases Friday.

Top Democrats criticized the move and unemployment experts were left confused about how it might be implemented, speculating it could take months for states to figure it out.

Meanwhile, South Dakota was hosting one of the largest

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Britain faces up to prospect of mass unemployment as government support winds

By Gertrude Aziz 7 days ago

Getty
Getty

“I literally don’t know what I would do.” says freelance chef Ryan Fisher as he considers the prospect trying to live off £343 per month universal credit – again.

The amount is £200 less than he pays each month to support his nine-year-old daughter, never mind his rent, food, gas, electricity, car insurance.

“I don’t know how I’ll cover all my bills. It’s just not enough to live on.”

He knows this from bitter experience because he’s been there before, when the government forcibly shut down his industry in March and work, which had been plentiful, dried up. Like millions of others, Fisher wasn’t entitled to any of the coronavirus support schemes.

After three months of debts piling up, calls from credit card companies and an emergency £500 grant from charity Turn2Us he found some short-term work at Porters, an upper-class eatery in Southampton.

For now, as the sun

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California lawmakers ask Newsom to act immediately on unemployment claims

By Gertrude Aziz 1 week ago

Joe Marquez, a former sheet metal worker from La Habra, looks for jobs at the One-Stop center in East Los Angeles. <span class="copyright">(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)</span>
Joe Marquez, a former sheet metal worker from La Habra, looks for jobs at the One-Stop center in East Los Angeles. (Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)

More than half the members of the California Legislature called on Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday to immediately begin paying unemployment benefits to many of the more than 1 million jobless workers whose claims have been stalled in the system as the state works to clear a months-long backlog.

In a letter to the governor, a bipartisan group of 61 lawmakers issued a series of requests for immediate action at the state Employment Development Department, including calls for the agency to ensure service representatives do not hang up on callers whom they can’t help, and implement an automatic call-back system to quickly respond to those who cannot reach a live operator. The lawmakers also called for the agency to expedite its approval of unemployment

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Many Republicans Are Perfectly Fine With Extra Unemployment Benefits Disappearing

By Gertrude Aziz 2 weeks ago

WASHINGTON ― As Senate Republicans try to advance a coronavirus relief bill with only $200 a week in extra unemployment benefits ― down from the expiring $600 ― many House Republicans are signaling that they’re opposed to any extra money at all.

“Zero is the number for me,” Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas) told HuffPost on Wednesday. 

Several of Williams’ House GOP colleagues also questioned whether the federal government should be providing any additional money to state unemployment benefits as more than 25 million people on Saturday will lose the stipend the federal government has been kicking in since March.

“Too much is $1 over what they would make if they had a job,” Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said.

Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) claimed the majority of people thought it was a good idea to not have any “bonus unemployment” (polls show completely the opposite).

Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.) said it

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Your $600 unemployment boost is expiring. What do you do?

By Gertrude Aziz 2 weeks ago

A $600 weekly benefit bonus from the federal government has made unemployment a little less painful for the tens of millions of Americans who’ve lost their jobs to the coronavirus. But if you’re in that group, you’ll have to survive without the extra money, at least temporarily.

The benefits boost expires on Friday, and Congress has failed to come to an agreement on whether to extend it. The U.S. House is to continue with the $600 payments through January, but the Senate wants to cut them back to $200.

Until there’s a deal, the bonus federal unemployment money is likely to lapse. Standard jobless benefits vary from state to state, and depending on where you live you may have trouble making ends meet on your state check alone.

What do you do? Here are seven ways to cope with a smaller weekly payout.

Cut down on monthly expenses

chainarong06 /

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Westchester DA Warns Residents Of New Unemployment Benefits Scam

By Gertrude Aziz 3 weeks ago

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY—As the coronavirus pandemic results in a surge in unemployment – scams that prey on residents down on their luck are also on the rise. According to Westchester County District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr., his office has received several reports of fraudulent unemployment benefit claims recently.

“Anyone who has been working or has been laid off can become a victim of unscrupulous bad actors who seize identity, file a claim for unemployment benefits using personal identifying information, and obtain money fraudulently from the New York State Department of Labor,” Scarpino said in a news release.

Scarpino said potential victims typically learn of the fraud when either they either receive a letter from the New York State Department of Labor relating to an application for benefits they never sought, and/or their employer receives a similar notification from the department.

According to the district attorney’s office, criminals may have

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How Low Can Dems Go On Unemployment Benefits?

By Gertrude Aziz 3 weeks ago

WASHINGTON ― The extra $600 a week Congress added to unemployment benefits is set to expire in a matter of days, and Republicans and Democrats remain as far apart as ever on a deal to extend the money ― both between their parties and within them.

Senate Republicans have delayed unveiling their own legislation to extend the benefits all week, with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) now saying Republicans in his chamber will release their bill on Monday. 

Democratic leaders won’t have much time to negotiate before benefits expire. In fact, even though the extra money was supposed to last until the end of July, many recipients will get their final $600 on Saturday or Sunday, because most states pay benefits on the weekend and July 31 is a Friday. (Regular state unemployment benefits, which are much lower, will continue.) 

And when lawmakers finally get around to hashing out final

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More Help Is Coming, But $600 Unemployment Bonus Will Lapse First

By Gertrude Aziz 3 weeks ago

A second economic rescue package is on the horizon, one that will likely include another stimulus check, funding for small businesses and schools, additional jobless benefits and more. But as lawmakers debate the finer points, a critical provision of the first relief package is set to expire.

Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, or FPUC, boosts all Americans’ unemployment payments by $600 per week, automatically. That provision of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act expires July 31 unless Congress acts immediately to extend it.

That deadline is according to the wording of the CARES Act, but the payments effectively end sooner. State unemployment agencies typically operate on a Sunday to Saturday schedule (or vice versa), meaning the last unemployment payment including the $600 bonus will be paid out either July 25 or July 26.

With the clock ticking, that means jobless Americans are likely to see a lapse in their unemployment payments —

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