About 75% of the people now filing for unemployment benefits in Vermont will be cut off from that assistance by the end of the year, according to the state Department of Labor.
Programs set up by the CARES Act Covid-19 relief package that Congress passed in March include the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program; the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program for the self-employed; and a program that extended the maximum benefits period from 39 to 52 weeks.
About 10,000 Vermonters are receiving benefits under the state’s traditional unemployment insurance program and won’t automatically lose them at the end of the year. But the 18,000 Vermonters receiving benefits through the two CARES Act programs will lose access to that program Dec. 26. Another 885 Vermonters will lose benefits this week as the federal government ends extended benefits.
Meanwhile, the labor department is also looking at reinstating the requirement that unemployment insurance recipients actively look for work in order to continue receiving benefits, the department said in its Dec. 8 weekly report to lawmakers.
“It is important for claimants to remember that if they are unemployed, and detached from their employer, they are strongly encouraged to actively search for work,” the labor department said. “It is likely at some point in the near future, work search requirements will be reinstated, and claimants will be required to complete weekly job contacts.”
All eyes are on the feds
The extended benefits program is based on states’ official unemployment rates. The Vermont Department of Labor reported the state’s October unemployment rate to be a low 3.2%, similar to the record lows the state experienced before the pandemic.
However, economists and the labor department have said that figure is inaccurate and shouldn’t be used to mask the problem of joblessness caused by Covid-19 pandemic-related shutdowns. Employer reports from October showed there were 26,000 fewer workers on payrolls that month than in February.
“We are extremely disappointed that the federal government has refused to recognize the real and distinct humanitarian crisis that this pandemic has created and instead is choosing to use outdated methodology resulting in benefits being cut for struggling Vermonters,” said Labor Commissioner Michael Harrington. “Thousands of families are relying on these benefits to simply survive and the Scott administration has been calling for the federal government and Congress to act to prevent this inevitability for weeks.”
Gov. Phil Scott said that by cutting off the benefits the federal government was “turning its back” on states and citizens.
“For weeks, my administration has called on the federal government to accept the bleak reality states are facing in combating this crisis and to act in support of its citizens, who were forced into unemployment through no fault of their own,” Scott said. He called on Congress on Friday to work together to pass a new stimulus package that will provide relief to people who are unemployed.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is negotiating the details of a $908 billion Covid-19 stimulus bill now.
No jobs to go to
Vermont was initially harder-hit by job loss in the pandemic than the U.S. at large, according to Kevin Stapleton, assistant director of economic and labor market information for the Vermont Department of Labor.
While the U.S. lost 15%, or 22 million, of its jobs between February and April, Vermont lost 21%, or 66,085, in that period. Vermont regained about 43% of those lost jobs between April and June, Stapleton said. The state doesn’t yet have more recent statistics that reflect the autumn wave of the pandemic, which closed restaurants, stores and other businesses that had opened in the summer.
Kyle Thweatt, a spokesperson for the labor department, said on Monday the department is retraining call center workers to provide assistance to Vermonters who don’t qualify for benefits.
“Right now our priority is letting everyone know the benefits are ending,” Thweatt said. “Our call center staff is being trained up on other information as well, in terms of contacting 211,” a hotline designed to direct people in crisis to emergency help.
Other CARES Act programs ending, too
A number of direct aid programs were created through the $2 trillion CARES Act. Vermont used part of its $1.25 billion share of that aid to help people with food, housing and utility payments, and other basic needs. But many of those programs are ending this month as well, said Sue Minter, the director of Capstone Community Action in Barre.
Capstone has seen demand increase sharply since the pandemic began for food assistance and for programs in areas such as financial coaching, reducing credit card debt and saving money, Minter said. Many are newcomers who haven’t used Capstone’s services before, Minter said, including 10% of the people who use Capstone’s food shelf.
“This level of economic insecurity and instability is new,” she said. The end of the housing and food security programs enabled by Congress “is literally such a cliff,” she said.
