Extended Jobless Benefits End; Last Checks This Week

The period of “extended” unemployment benefits for nearly four-thousand Iowans is over.

 

The budget deal passed earlier this month by congress does not continue the program into 2014. Iowa Workforce Development spokeswoman Kerry Koonce says the final unemployment checks will come this week.
According to federal officials, almost 229-thousand Iowans got extended unemployment benefits at some point between January of 2008 and September of this year. Nationally, about one-point-three million Americans who’ve qualified for extended unemployment benefits will be cut off at the turn of the year. The benefit averages about three-hundred dollars per week. The Obama Administration has asked congress to renew the program, saying those benefits are a “critical lifeline for struggling Americans.” A bill pending in the senate would continue the extended unemployment benefits for three more months. Republicans in congress have said there’d have to be cuts elsewhere in the federal budget if the program were to continue.