Jobless benefits in Tennessee will soon more than double and be extended for another 11 weeks for long-term unemployed persons under the sweeping fiscal relief measure signed into law by President Trump over the weekend.
But it may take another week or more for those extra benefits to actually begin being paid.
The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development said Monday that it is still waiting for federal rules to be given upon the newly modified program.
Chris Cannon, assistant commissioner for communications in the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, said in a statement Monday that “there is no firm timeline as to when states will receive this guidance from the federal government.
“The state cannot pay benefits until it receives rules for these modified programs,” he said. “Once that happens, the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development will work to implement the changes as quickly as possible to provide these much-needed benefits to eligible claimants in Tennessee.”
The package that Trump signed at his private club in Florida on Sunday will extend two unemployment benefit programs providing aid to 14 million people that expired last week. It will also provide small business loans and up to $600 in cash payments to most individuals. In addition, it extends a moratorium on evictions for one month. The measure does not include aid for states and localities that are being forced to turn to layoffs and service cuts as their tax revenue dries up – a potential long-run drag on the economy.
The legislation extends the two federal jobless aid programs until mid-March and adds a $300 supplemental weekly payment. Currently, Tennessee’s Unemployment Insurance program pays a maximum weekly benefit of $275 for unemployed persons.
While the federal supplement will more than double Tennessee’s weekly jobless benefit, it is still below the $600-a-week the federal government provided as a supplement from April through July.
Because Trump signed the newest relief bill on Sunday, a day after the two programs lapsed, that could cost the unemployed a week or more of benefits.
“The date was really unfortunate,” said Michele Evermore, a senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project, a workers’ advocacy group. “Now there’s some question as to when this gets paid out.”
It is possible that the Labor Department will interpret the law to allow payments for the week ending Jan. 2, Evermore said. But if the bill had been signed Saturday, payments clearly could have restarted this week.
And it will likely take two to three weeks for states to update their computer systems to resume the aid programs and pay out the extra $300, Evermore said, a process that could have started earlier, after Congress first approved the bill about a week ago.
“Some aid is better than no aid,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. “It’s positive. But it’s likely going to be insufficient to bridge the gap from today until late spring or early summer, when the health situation fully improves.”
President-elect Joe Biden has said he will seek another relief package soon after his inauguration next month, setting up another political brawl given that some Senate Republicans have said that with vaccines on the way, further government aid may be unnecessary.
– Compiled by Dave Flessner