Stimulus deal: Time is running out on these 5 benefits – CNET

Dec. 31 is only weeks away, and with it comes the end of programs created to provide financial relief during the pandemic. The only way to keep these benefits going is with a new stimulus bill. Lawmakers will have to negotiate quickly to get a package of any sort passed before Congress ends its term.

On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of Congressional lawmakers announced their relief package proposal to the tune of $908 billion and would extend the soon-expiring enhanced unemployment benefit for four months. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell quickly dismissed the plan the same day, saying he wouldn’t entertain it. In its stead, he proposed a “target relief package” that contained far less help for unemployed workers. A group of senators led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer proposed their own relief package called the American Worker Holiday Relief Act, which keeps enhanced unemployment going until October 2021.  

Biden, Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are also backing the $908 billion bipartisan bill.

Until then, here are the programs that will disappear on Jan. 1, 2021 without new stimulus relief.

Read more: Sorry, you could get less money in a second stimulus check

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$300 weekly unemployment bonus

The average weekly unemployment benefit doesn’t always equal a worker’s earnings and typically ranges 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 smaller $300 weekly bonus (for a six-week period) with the expectation 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.

Extra months of 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

Money for gig workers

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. The PUA is set to end Dec. 31. If the federal government doesn’t extend it, it will be up to the states to determine whether they will step in on Jan. 1.

Eviction moratorium

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 Centers for Disease Control, which called for a halt on evictions for failure to pay rent. This order by the agency covered more households, including renters in 43 million households, but it also has an expiration date of Dec. 31.

Federal student loan deferment

Students who are paying off federal student loans also received a reprieve under 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.