ST. LOUIS — Millions of families across the country are losing access to federal aid on Monday.
According to CNBC, 7.5 million people are expected to lose all pandemic federal unemployment benefits. Millions more are losing access to a weekly payment of $300 that makes a big difference for families struggling during the pandemic.
About 452,000 people in Illinois are losing access to this money, too.
In Illinois, the maximum regular unemployment payment is $484 a week for up to 26 weeks.
With these funds being taken away, Illinois is expected to be one of the hardest hit states economically.
Missourians lost their benefits back in June. Missouri was one of the first states in the country to pull the federal pandemic assistance. At the time, Gov. Mike Parson said he made the decision to stop incentivizing workers to stay home. A lawsuit, filed by Missouri Jobs With Justice, was shot down last week in an attempt to get that money back in the pockets of residents.
The ruling by Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem came a day after lawyers representing Missouri residents who lost the jobless benefits asked for reinstatement with back pay that, for some people, could have amounted to $1,500.
The federal payments have been altered a bit since the pandemic started.
The CARES Act created three programs to boost unemployment benefits during the pandemic back in March 2020. Under one of those programs, the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, people initially got $600 a week if they lost their jobs due to COVID-19. In August 2020, former President Donald Trump reduced those payments down to $300.
Then, President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan extended those $300 payments through Monday, Sept. 6.
Now, the White House is encouraging states to use emergency funding to help their residents who are out of work.
But, a number of states have no plans to do this.
St. Louis area residents needing assistance will need to seek help from state programs for unemployment. Both Missouri and Illinois have unemployment programs and resources for food and rental insurance.
A major worry is that these benefits are expiring while we’re in the fourth wave of the pandemic. Experts are still seeing surging cases of the delta variant. Just this past week, the U.S. hit another grave milestone with an average of 1,500 people dying each day from COVID-19.
That number was as low as 200 in July.