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More Than One Million Californians At Risk Of Losing Unemployment, If Congress Doesn't Act
Benefits for more than one million unemployed Californians hang in the balance as Congressional negotiations to pass a new COVID-19 relief bill come down to the wire.
Lawmakers are currently debating a bipartisan bill that would extend two federal unemployment programs created by the federal CARES Act — Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) — into mid-April. Both are set to expire on Dec. 26.
According to a new analysis from researchers with the California Policy Lab, this "unemployment cliff" would leave more than a million Californians — and upwards of 320,000 workers in Los Angeles County alone — without benefits, starting December 26.
While legal aid advocates are hopeful that federal relief is coming soon, unemployment recipients say they're under a massive amount of stress. The state's Employment Development Department is notifying three million recipients across the state of the impending cut-off.
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