Lawmakers push an extra $1,800 for some Massachusetts unemployed
People collecting less than $100 on unemployment in Massachusetts are not eligible for the most recent round of extra benefits — “robbing” them of $1,800 in extra cash, something lawmakers are looking to change.
“We find the $100 threshold extremely unnecessary, arbitrary, and punitive to low-wage workers, the very people who have been hit hardest by the economic fallout from COVID,” a group of lawmakers wrote in a Sept. 24 letter to Labor Secretary Rosalin Acosta.
More than 100 legislators signed onto the letter and a group met with the labor secretary on Wednesday. They asked the secretary to increase the benefit amount for the state’s lowest earners to $100, making them eligible for six weeks of extra benefits at $300 per week.
“Other governors have done it. These poor people, give them another $300 a week,” Sen. Patricia Jehlen told the Herald ahead of the meeting.
President Trump extended the additional unemployment benefits through a presidential executive order after the initial benefits extended through a coronavirus relief bill expired in July.
Lawmakers in their letter said the move would promote equity and jumpstart the economy. If 1,000 people were helped, it would result in an infusion of $1.8 million into our state’s economy, according to the letter.
The Department of Unemployment Assistance has not provided data on how many claimants in Massachusetts collect less than $100 in weekly benefits and are therefore ineligible for the latest round of federal assistance.
DUA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/30m1ESI
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