Closer look at relief bill
Money is on the way. On Sunday, President Donald Trump signed into law the $900 billion COVID-19 stimulus package and the accompanying $1.4 trillion spending bill to fund the government after two critical unemployment programs that support about 12 million Americans and about 200,000 Nevadans expired Saturday.
“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.”
Here’s what the new law means for you:
Jobless benefits
The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program has allowed independent contractors and self-employed workers to claim unemployment insurance, while the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program has allowed for up to 13 weeks of additional unemployment benefits to people who previously collected state or federal unemployment compensation but exhausted those benefits.
Both programs were extended for 11 weeks, until March 14, and the legislation adds a $300 supplemental weekly payment.
Nevada’s employment agency said Monday that claimants will get the full 11 weeks of the $300 supplemental payments, as they will be back
paid to this week once funds can be distributed.
The funds will be distributed after the agency receives guidance from the Department of Labor. That may take up to two weeks.
The delay will force those out of work to make hard decisions about paying for food, medicine or rent.
“These are people who have been living in poverty for months,” Evermore said. “Any delay is an immense hardship.”
Those eligible to receive the money, including recipients of PUA and PEUC funding, will automatically receive it, the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said in a statement.
The law also requires gig workers and independent contractors who file for the PUA program to verify their identity, something that has helped lead to rampant fraud in the country and Nevada.
Through the week ending Dec. 19, a total of 779,503 PUA initial claims have been filed. Nevada has sent out nearly 384,000 PUA ineligibility claim determination notices in two separate batches since October, amounting to nearly half of all
claims filed in the program.
Claimants in any program will be disqualified for refusing to work “without good cause,” DETR said Monday.
Stimulus checks
The much larger rescue package the government enacted in March, known as the CARES Act, was widely credited with averting a disaster. By injecting money quickly into the pockets of individual Americans, it served to reduce poverty. But as much of that aid expired over the summer, poverty grew. Many people ran through the $1,200 direct payment checks that had been distributed in April and May.
This time around, the new law will provide a second round of stimulus checks to many Americans. The onetime $600 stimulus payment will be for eligible individuals earning up to $75,000 per year, with an additional $600 per qualifying child.
The checks are notably smaller than the ones provided as part of the CARES Act, and that was a major sticking point for Trump, who was reluctant to sign the bill and called for $2,000 relief checks.
It’s not clear when the checks will be sent out, but Treasury Secretary
Steven Mnuchin previously said that direct deposits could go out the week after the bill is signed.
On Monday, the Democrat-controlled House voted to boost stimulus checks to $2,000 per person, sending Trump’s request to the Gop-controlled Senate, where the bill’s fate is uncertain.
Businesses
The new relief package also restores the Paycheck Protection Program, which offers forgivable loans to many businesses. Especially hard-hit businesses that received PPP grants will be eligible for a second round of funding.
According to the data firm Womply, about 1 in 5 small businesses has closed since early spring. More than half of small businesses have just two months’ cash on hand or less, and 1 in 6 has two weeks or less of cash, according to a survey by the Census Bureau.