Long-Term Jobless Facing New Year Without Aid
Photo Credit: Tax Credits/flickr
Jobless benefits are slated to expire this weekend for 1.3 million people who receive the long-term federal aid payments that kick in after state insurance payments run out. The emergency benefits, which were instituted during the 2008 recession, allowed many individuals to receive benefits for up to 99 weeks while seeking work. While the program has been extended 11 times, lawmakers failed to reach a year-end agreement to maintain it.
The lapse means more than just fewer presents under the tree for unemployed people like Nancy Connelly-Cumming, a single mother who lives in Newbury Park, Calif.
She’s been looking for work since losing her job at a nonprofit group in September 2012. “Absolutely, I couldn’t have survived this long without an unemployment benefit,” she told NBC News. “That was definitely what kept me going.”
Connelly-Cumming said she’s been applying for minimum-wage jobs and that she fears losing her home if she stops receiving her aid. “I don’t want my children to know,” she said. “They’re 16 and 14 and they’re pretty aware of what’s going on but I don’t want them to come to the realization that we might not have this home in a couple of months. I don’t want them to know that. They don’t have to worry. That’s my job.”
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