Last $600 federal weekly payment still delayed in Nevada
The last week of federal unemployment benefits that was supposed to come this week is now expected next week for some jobless Nevadans.
A system glitch prevented some workers from receiving their final $600 unemployment insurance payment from the federal government, the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation announced Tuesday. The department said that issue would be resolved Wednesday and payments would follow.
Instead, the department announced Thursday that it was still working to fix the bug and the last batch of federal benefits payments would not come until sometime next week. DETR said those who are eligible for the additional funds will automatically be paid, including those eligible for retroactive payments.
The $600-a-week benefits supplemented state unemployment benefits under a program created by the $2 trillion federal coronavirus stimulus bill signed in March. That program, known as Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, will expire at the end of July because the U.S. Senate couldn’t agree to a deal before the weekend to extend the benefits.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell finally unveiled his $1 trillion plan Monday, but Democrats and Republicans disagreed over how to continue providing unemployment insurance benefits, among other funding initiatives, to millions of jobless Americans.
Democrats want to continue paying the additional $600 a week, but the GOP says it would keep many people out of the workforce. Republicans counter that the weekly benefit should be reduced to $200 until states can transition to paying filers 70 percent of their wage before job loss due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s unclear how states like Nevada that are still struggling to pay existing benefits and the additional $600 will be able to create a new system to calculate and pay 70 percent of each person’s wages before the pandemic.
Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.