It’s Labor Day weekend — and the federal government is marking the occasion by allowing crucial unemployment benefits to expire for millions of people.
As Delta surges, the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program is ending. PUA has provided benefits to people who lost work for COVID-related reasons and who are not eligible for conventional unemployment benefits — people like independent contractors & those caring for kids and family members.
“Nobody wants to be on unemployment. It’s not enough to live on. Without the additional federal benefit, I was only receiving a couple hundred dollars a week which isn’t even enough to cover my rent. Now I’m going to lose all of it. I’m a freelance editor and copywriter, and I keep looking but nobody seems to want to hire someone who is 65. How can the government turn their backs on people now? COVID cases are at an all time high, and they expect all of us to go out and work right now regardless of the risks. I feel like we’re all being ignored, and more people are going to end up homeless because of it.” — Barbara Wright, PUA recipient
It’s not just PUA that's going to zero this Labor Day weekend. Extended weeks of benefits for people in long-term unemployment are ending. And everyone on unemployment will lose the supplemental $300 in additional federal weekly unemployment benefits.
“Without any unemployment benefits, I don’t know what my economic status will be in a month. My savings will not go far. I lost my job as a massage therapist last March. I am a single mother, and I also care for my own mother, so it’s already been a nightmare getting through their system, with adjudications and other things that interrupted my benefits. It was incredibly hard but somehow I got through it. It’s always the next red tape that trips you up, and they always seem to find a way to rule me out. And now I’m getting ruled out again.” — Jeanelle Parrott, PEUC recipient
Here in WA, 120,000 unemployed workers will completely lose all unemployment benefits. Those who don’t lose all their benefits will see weekly payments fall by $300 — critical additional money that has been helping keep many people afloat.
“This is about survival because I am barely scraping by as someone who is LGBTQ. And I’m just a single person who can stand to eat one or two meals a day. It feels really unsafe thinking about going back to work with the public during COVID. I was working as a line cook, and most jobs out there don’t support a family, aren’t offering insurance at least for the first six months, and aren’t even willing to negotiate pay. It’s been very traumatic watching this deadline approach as I search for work over the past few months, and I see jobs offering the same pay they did before COVID. It’s not that I don’t want to work, it’s that I don’t want to die being exploited by a for-profit company I own no part of.” — Jack Francis, PEUC recipient
The federal government has failed unemployed workers by allowing these crucial programs to expire. But WA state leaders are not powerless. They can and must step in with relief to ensure continued economic security for unemployed workers across the state.
Ever since this crisis first took hold, unemployed workers organizing with Working WA have been calling on the state to take bold action to make sure our unemployment system actually does its job: providing benefits during times of crisis to everyone who loses work.
Our state has found millions of dollars to provide relief to businesses struggling during the pandemic. WA can find a way to support workers, too.