The Covid relief law expands and increases unemployment benefits

Unemployed workers would get an additional 11 weeks of unemployment benefits and a weekly improvement of $ 300 to help with payments under a Covid relief agreement that Congress reached Sunday.

According to a document summarizing the legislation, certain self-employed and group workers would also get an extra $ 100 a week.

The 11-week calendar is less than the amount offered by a bipartisan package released earlier this month. That bill would have paid extended and increased benefits for 16 weeks, in mid-April.

In total, the $ 900 billion commitment package, the result of frantic negotiations before a year-end benefit cliff for millions of workers, offers $ 120 billion in additional unemployment benefits.

There are more than 20 million Americans receiving unemployment benefits, according to the Department of Labor.

The legislation would also extend two programs created by the CARES Act: Aid for unemployment in pandemics, which pays benefits to self-employed, contracted, self-employed and part-time workers who are not eligible for state unemployment insurance; and pandemic emergency unemployment compensation, which pays additional weeks of benefits to people who have exhausted their state benefits.

Some self-employed workers, workers and other workers who have wage income (i.e., W-2) and self-employed (i.e., 1099) will also be eligible for an additional $ 100 per week.

Many of these people receive unemployment benefits at a low level due to the way their benefits have been calculated. States base their benefit level solely on wages reported on their annual W-2 tax forms, excluding self-employment income, which can be much higher.

The bill also provides direct economic relief for people through $ 600 stimulus checks for people earning up to $ 75,000 a year, $ 1,200 for couples reaching $ 150,000, and $ 600. extra dollars for dependent children.