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I keep reading news of food banks having long lines before it opens up and how dire it is for the recent unemployed. But unless you are an illegal you should have gotten the stimulus check along with unemployment benefits including the Federal additional $600/week bonus.
With rent being frozen at many cities and mortgages getting forbearance. This should help people free up $1500-3000+ in monthly living expenses.
Unemployment benefits for each person should receive atleast $1000/week+ with the CARES ACT bonus. That equates to around $4000+/month for the unemployed without having to pay rent or their mortgages for the time being. A couple should receive atleast $2000/week if they are both unemployed.
The unemployment benefits departments are overwhelmed and many people can’t get through to file. Plus they haven’t changed the system to accept self employed people.
The unemployment benefits departments are overwhelmed and many people can’t get through to file. Plus they haven’t changed the system to accept self employed people.
I'm self employed and I did receive a notice to file from a separate program for small businesses. There are more strings attached but since I am still in business I have no need. What I see is the logistics from getting the money out to people.
NJ's unemployment system is over whelmed but they should've been able to handle that since the last 2 recessions. NJ pays $610/week in benefits and plus the CARES ACT that should be $1210/week for recent filers.
In Texas you receive $1000/week and with CARES ACT, that is $1600/week, you don't have to work if you're getting that much and can even pay for the mortgage easily.
A lot of people who should qualify filed for it back in March and still have not received anything.
Rent will still be due in full when this is over.
Even people who filed for food stamps are having trouble actually receiving them.
Suspension of rent and car payments does mean a delayed cost for people and credit card debt has jumped the last 2 months for avg Americans. But I believe the stimulus will eventually make it into people's wallets and ease some of the debts unless people are spending beyond their means which I believe is the true culprit for many poor folks.
Many people don't even make $1000 a week are gonna get their $500-1000/week from states and on top of that $600/week from the Fed. Why bother working at Amazon Warehouse for $15.75/hr x 40 = $630/week
The only people that don't qualify are illegals. The CARES ART does include provisions for letting those uber and gig workers to apply for benefits.
Suspension of rent and car payments does mean a delayed cost for people and credit card debt has jumped the last 2 months for avg Americans. But I believe the stimulus will eventually make it into people's wallets and ease some of the debts unless people are spending beyond their means which I believe is the true culprit for many poor folks.
Many people don't even make $1000 a week are gonna get their $500-1000/week from states and on top of that $600/week from the Fed. Why bother working at Amazon Warehouse for $15.75/hr x 40 = $630/week
The only people that don't qualify are illegals. The CARES ART does include provisions for letting those uber and gig workers to apply for benefits.
Lots of people don’t qualify ( basically anyone without a W-2 job, including youth, illegals, other aliens with no right to work, self employed, independent contractors, etc.)
Also, the system is overwhelmed so even those that qualify often cannot get through, which is at least partly by design since states want to make it difficult to get benefits. What was put in place during “ normal” times is totally unfit to handle a crisis because it was set up to struggle to process enough people even pre-crisis.
Finally, people might not want to skip rent/ mortgage because only evictions/ foreclosures are suspended. Non-payers still face accrual of back payments and damage to their reputation ( for tenants) or credit ( for mortgaged homeowners).
it took more than a month of calling to finish processing a claim in ny ...for whatever reason after you complete the claim on line you get a message that a rep will call in 72 hours to complete the process .
after no one called , we called them , or tried anyway . ..the phones would say all reps are busy then click and disconnect you .
why they needed a call escapes me ... it was really not warranted at all .... it all could have been completed on line more than a month ago
the crazy thing is even working one day qualifies for unemployment and even the minimum level in ny which is 182 dollars gets a 600 a week adder ...
Also, along with unemployment came the loss of company subsidized health insurance. That is a giant added monthly expense for cobra or aca payments.
For lower income families, children were getting the bulk of their meals at school or summer programs- food banks don’t fully cover what was in place and are much more time consuming, inconvenient and unsafe with children in tow.
I would not assume all families have 2 parents or that both parents were working.
Some workers have giant drops income but do not qualify for unemployment because they still make above the threshold- this is especially true of higher paid hourly who have had their hours cut in half. Some would rather work part time and keep their jobs than get the larger unemployment payment.
How about the people who count on income from their 2 or 3 family or short term vacation rentals. They still have to pay mortgage and property taxes and cannot evict.
It took more than 4 weeks for my dad to get his unemployment back pay. Had we not logged into the irs portal for him and put in his financial info, he wouldn’t have got his stimulus check yet either.
All I can say is, in the past I used to have to call state revenue departments for tax notices when I was a staff and it could take more than an hour to get through and that was just calling in on any old day. I can’t imagine what these state call lines are like now with literally millions calling in with questions or needing aid.
When I was a student in college, I worked for a school district in their superintendents office, and 1/3 of the students received lunch and breakfast aid. When there’s no school...now they’re home. And hungry.
Obviously the hotel workers, restaurant workers, ect were some of the first to be unemployed. Those are the people who make the least and already struggle. Throw in weeks of delay in them getting assistance, and they have major cashflow issues.
A lot of companies have also just simply slashed pay. I’ve seen 25% most commonly, but I’ve also seen 30% and 50%. In those cases, people may have a huge, immediate problem and I don’t know if they can get anything to make up that gap.
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