Unemployed Nevadans and the state about to run out of money

Gov. Steve Sisolak said the situation for jobless Nevadans is dire as the state’s rainy day fund is wiped clean and aid from the federal coronavirus relief package will expire in weeks.

“If we could write a check to every Nevadan right now to provide them the ability to stay home and stop the spread, I would,” Sisolak said Sunday. “But we can’t.”

And nine months into the pandemic, the state is still reeling from rising unemployment.

The state will be in the red soon: As of Dec. 5, the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation reported that it has a little over $25.7 million in the unemployment insurance trust fund, not enough to cover one week’s worth of payments. Nevada will soon need to borrow money from the federal government to pay out jobless claims.

Jobless Nevadans are also approaching limits. Unemployment benefits are established for a full year, but due to the pandemic, more than 140,000 Nevadans have exhausted that eligibility, with the vast majority unable to file again until mid-March 2021 or later, Sisolak said Sunday.

Expiring aid

Two key provisions of the $2 trillion federal coronavirus relief package passed in March, known as the CARES Act, have been providing jobless pay to Nevadans.

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 added up to 13 weeks of additional unemployment benefits to people who previously collected state or federal unemployment compensation but exhausted those benefits.

Both programs expire the day after Christmas.

“These are temporary programs put into place during the pandemic, but they’re set by law to end on Dec. 26,” Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, previously told the Review-Journal. “It’s coming at a very bad time.”

DETR reported 78,977 people are receiving PUA payments as of Dec. 5, while 98,178 are receiving PEUC payments.

Maxed out

Many who have been receiving traditional state jobless benefits are also approaching a new level of financial stress, as many will soon reach — or have already reached — the maximum amount of payments allowed.

Nevada allows jobless workers to claim a maximum of 26 weeks of state unemployment insurance. That would have been the week of Sept. 13 for people who began receiving benefits the week of March 17, when Sisolak ordered many nonessential businesses to close, prompting mass layoffs. With the 13-week PEUC extension, benefits for many will be expiring this week.

Nevadans who have exhausted their benefits won’t be eligible to file again for another benefit year, the 52-week period following the date a claim was filed.

DETR reported 85,680 people are continuing to receive traditional unemployment insurance as of Dec. 5.

Without additional federal assistance, Sisolak said, the majority of those Nevadans will have no further unemployment benefits available to them from the state or the federal government.

“This is a stark difference from the spring, when the additional assistance from the federal government helped many of Nevada’s most vulnerable workers displaced by COVID receive unemployment benefits that replaced roughly 100 percent of their lost income,” Sisolak said. “That reality no longer exists.”

‘On our own’

Sisolak’s announcement did little to reassure some jobless Nevadans — many of whom are still waiting for DETR to approve any unemployment benefits.

Las Vegan Richard Tellier, 67, who filed for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program in May, said that he has worried. He has been relying on his Social Security benefits and teacher’s pension while waiting for his claim to be approved.

“I’m sitting here with $7.24 in my bank account and I need it to last to the end of the month,” Tellier, an unemployed substitute teacher, said Sunday.

Tellier said “it’s unconscionable” that the U.S. Senate hasn’t passed a new COVID aid package that would provide more unemployment money to the jobless.

Sisolak urged congressional action Sunday night.

“I hope and pray that Congress listens to us and our federal delegation who are fighting for more funding for our state,” he said. “But if we’ve learned anything over the last nine months, it’s that we have to figure out how to get through this on our own.”

Contact Jonathan Ng at ng@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ByJonathanNg on Twitter.