Most states will begin distributing benefits in the middle of the month. At least 11 states are beginning this week to pay the extra $300 in weekly unemployment benefits under the $900 billion stimulus agreement signed at the end of 2020. New York, California, Arizona, Tennessee and North Carolina are the states that as of Tuesday have sent the extra unemployment benefit to their citizens.
Michele Evermore, a policy analyst with the National Employment Law Project, told Yahoo Money that “most states will be delivering the extra unemployment benefits by mid-January.
During this first week at least 11 states will implement the $300 bonus payment.
According to a Brookings report, it is estimated that at least 14 million Americans who are unemployed will receive an additional $300 per week in Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) for 11 weeks through March 14. Both workers with Unemployment Insurance (UI) and those receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) will receive the extra pay added to their basic weekly unemployment benefits.
New York began paying the extra $300 to unemployment beneficiaries in all programs, while California has begun paying benefits to workers with Unemployment Insurance (UI) but not yet to unemployed workers receiving PUA and PEUC. About 1.3 million Californians will receive the extra benefit this week, according to a statement from the California Employment Development Department.
Extra payments of $300 will not be retroactive and will begin the week of December 27. The weeks following the expiration of the extra $600 under the CARES Act and the extra $300 under the Lost Wage Assistance (LWA) program are not covered by current legislation. Although the benefits of this program were quickly distributed in 2020 states such as Nevada, Virginia and Wisconsin, it took them more than two months to implement it.