Without new stimulus money soon, these 5 benefits become toast – CNET

The final election results could have an impact on when negotiations will wrap up to get Americans more stimulus money, and on what will be in the final package.

“Our economy is really moving to get back on its feet. That I think clearly ought to affect what size of any rescue package we additionally do,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a press conference on Friday. “I do think we need another one but I think it reinforces the argument that I’ve been making for the last few months that something smaller — rather than throwing another $3 trillion at this issue — is more appropriate, with it highly targeted towards things that are directly related to the coronavirus, which we all know is not going away until we get a vaccine.”

McConnell hasn’t mentioned a second stimulus check for individuals and families or more unemployment assistance.

The March CARES Act authorized the first $1,200 stimulus check and the $600 weekly unemployment bonus, which collectively provided assistance to hundreds of millions of Americans who were unemployed or in financial need when the pandemic first hit. In August, Trump signed four executive actions intended to extend some of these programs to some degree. But all of the most significant coronavirus relief programs are set to expire on Dec. 31, 2020. This would set the stage for a tangle of financial issues starting on the first day of the new year, including an expected uptick in people filing for personal bankruptcy.

We’ve identified the key programs that are set to end — keep reading for more information.

Read more: You don’t have to be a US citizen living in America to get a stimulus check

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Next stimulus checks: What to expect

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Unemployment benefits 

Individual states handle unemployment insurance claims, determining if a person is eligible, how much they receive and for how long they can collect. Though it varies from state to state, the CARES Act extended the duration of benefits from 26 weeks to 39 weeks. Starting on Jan. 1, those additional 13 weeks provided by the federal government are gone. 

Some states have already backfilled the void on their own, including increasing their benefit period up to 59 weeks, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Others, including Alabama, Arkansas and Utah, haven’t taken action on it, which could leave unemployed workers in those states without assistance as the new year begins.   

Read more: Coronavirus unemployment: Who is covered, how to apply and how much it pays

The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program

Another initiative of the CARES Act, the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, also known as PUA, provided economic relief to those who wouldn’t typically qualify for unemployment: self-employed workers, contractors and gig workers. At the moment, the PUA is set to end on Dec. 31. If the federal government doesn’t extend it, it will be up to the states to determine whether they can step in on Jan. 1.

$300 weekly unemployment benefit bonus

The average weekly unemployment benefit doesn’t always equal a worker’s earnings, typically running between $300 and $600. To help fill the gap, the CARES Act added a weekly unemployment benefit bonus of $600. When that bonus expired on July 31, Trump signed an executive memo paving the way for a $300 weekly bonus (for a six-week period) with the expectation that Congress would soon pass another relief package. That hasn’t happened, and most states have exhausted the six weeks of extra funding. The $300 bonus provision is set to end on Dec. 27, according to the president’s memo, and is expected to sunset unused.

Eviction protection

The CARES Act provided limited protection on evictions by only focusing on homes backed with a federal mortgage loan or households that received some type of federal funding. The protections were then expanded in September by the Center for Disease Control, which called for a halt on evictions. Although this order by the agency did cover more households, including renters in 43 million households, it also has an expiration date of Dec. 31.

Student loan deferment

Students who are paying off federal student loans also received a reprieve from the CARES Act, which gave them the option to defer their loan payments (and which paused the accrual of interest) until the end of September 2020. In August, Trump extended the deferment until Dec. 31. On Jan. 1, loan servicers will once again be able to charge interest on these loans and students may have to resume paying them off unless the servicers offer deferment options. 

For more information, here’s the latest status of stimulus negotiations, and here’s everything we know about the next relief bill.