Federal Unemployment Extension Programs to Continue Through June 2, 2010

April 16, 2010

President Obama has signed legislation to temporarily continue three Federally-funded unemployment programs - Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC), Extended Benefits (EB), and Federal Additional Compensation (FAC) – through June 2, 2010.

The EUC and EB programs provide extra weeks of benefits to laid-off workers who have run out of regular state funded unemployment benefits. FAC provides an additional $25 weekly benefit payment to workers who are receiving unemployment benefits through specific unemployment programs.

The measure also extended eligibility for the COBRA health insurance 65% subsidy for people how have lost their jobs through May 31.

Highlights

Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC)

• Extends the EUC program to June 2, 2010 (previously April 5, 2010).
• Extends EUC phase-out to November 6, 2010 (previously September 4, 2010).
• Authorizes continued federal general revenue funding of EUC benefits and administrative costs.

• Extends the FAC program to June 2, 2010 (previously April 5, 2010).
• Extends FAC phase-out December 7, 2010 (previously October 5, 2010).

• Extends 100 percent Federal funding of EB to June 2, 2010 (previously April 5, 2010). Extended Benefits in Maine will be payable through the week ending Saturday, June 12, 2010 as long as the Maine unemployment rate does not decrease such that the program triggers off.

What this means for you

If you are running out of regular state unemployment benefits
If you have or will run out of regular state regular unemployment benefits before June 2, 2010, you may be eligible to apply for benefits under the EUC program.

If you are currently on EUC or EB
If you are currently signed-up for EUC or EB benefits, the extension will allow you to advance into different tiers of benefits until June 2, 2010. The legislation does not add any weeks of benefits to either program.

If you have already run out of all regular, EUC, and EB benefits
This latest program extension does not add any extra weeks of benefits under the EUC or EB programs, it just allows the programs to continue paying benefits to workers who are still eligible to receive benefits.