State won't extend expiring unemployment benefits, Murphy says

Roughly half-a-million jobless New Jerseyans will see their unemployment benefits lapse next week, and the state doesn’t plan to extend them, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday.

The so-called unemployment cliff comes with the Sept. 6 expiration of federal unemployment benefits that have provided residents with hundreds of dollars each week during the pandemic.

“We recognize the impact that this will have on some families facing unemployment issues,” Murphy said. “To support New Jerseyans through suffering through the economic impacts of the pandemic we have invested in rent-assistance, food-assistance, child-care assistance, health-care affordability assistance, and other assistance programs we have set up programs which are funded through billions of dollars of federal coronavirus relief programs.”

The announcement means three federal programs — Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, and $300 weekly supplemental payments — serving roughly 500,000 New Jerseyans will sunset next week, though about a fifth of those residents may be eligible for a separate extended-benefits program.

Read more: https://newjerseymonitor.com/briefs/state-wont-extend-expiring-unemployment-benefits-murphy-says/