Hi everyone, this is Dr. Nitin Chhoda with
Ignition Time and welcome to my channel!
Now a lot of information has been
emerging about the $300
a week unemployment benefit extensions
and by now it's pretty clear
that there's a lot of inequality as far
as the $300 a
week unemployment benefit extensions are
concerned. I'll tell you exactly what I
mean. Specifically there are FIVE reasons why
there is inequality
across the country as far as the
President's $300
a week enhanced unemployment benefit is
concerned. We're talking about the lost
wages assistance program
which was set up as a direct result of
the President's executive
action. So let's jump into the five
reasons but before I jump into it let me
know what you think of my brand new glasses. I
got some brand new glasses.
These are prescription
Gunnar glasses, they are anti-glare
glasses. So i'm actually going to
put on the second set of glasses and let
me know what you think of these
and whether you think I should stick
with the first ones
or the second ones. Let me know what you
think, i'd like to know
what you guys feel because you know your
opinion your feedback is important to me.
So let's jump right in. There are 5
reasons. The first reason
why there is some inequality in the $300
week unemployment
benefit extension from the lost wages
assistance program is that
some workers are already getting paid.
Now the reason I say this is inequality is
a whole bunch of people have not yet
gotten paid.
At the time i'm recording this video, 42
states have applied
for the FEMA money through
the DRF program and these funds come
from the $44 billion as you know.
Some states have already started getting
the money. As you know Arizona,
residents in the state of
Arizona already started getting the money.
Texas has also already started receiving
the money. So some states have already
started receiving
the money. In fact unemployed individuals
in the state of Arizona
got the benefits starting the 17th of
August. So it's been well over a week
since they started getting those
benefits and they started getting those
benefits just 2 days
after FEMA approved the state and
provided the state with money.
And individuals in Texas started getting
their benefits a few days ago
and that's been good news as well.
Missouri and Louisiana have also started
getting their benefits and
they actually expected to start sending
out more and more benefits
in the coming days. So again this means
not everybody has gotten the benefits.
So that was
the first reason some workers are
already getting paid. The second is
many many individuals will need to wait
a few weeks
potentially much longer.
Therein lies the inequality because not
everyone is getting paid
at the same time which by the way is
what happened with the $600
a week unemployment booster the federal
booster that ended
ualmost a month ago at this point in
time. So with the $600 a
week booster it essentially went through
all the state systems
through the existing unemployment
benefits program but this one nope it's
a completely
separate program. So some states like Alaska
Maine, Georgia and Mississippi said that
they have to reconfigure
their computer systems to handle the new
payments. A process that could take a
couple of weeks for some states and
as long as 6 weeks, 8 weeks for
other states because
a lot of these states have outdated
systems that have already been strained
by the historically
high levels of unemployment. And some
states like Alabama
are still waiting for the money to come
through from fema so that's basically
what's going on right now
and some states like utah rhode island
kentucky and connecticut are hoping to
start paying out the money by
mid-september
so there's a lot of discrepancy if you
will between when
states are handing out this money
california said it will start handing
out the money sometime next month
florida just said a couple of days ago
that they're going to participate in the
program and apply
and colorado indiana maryland and
oklahoma are planning on sending out
checks in the next couple of weeks and
alaskans could be waiting until october
because the state said
that they were approved to participate
in the program but they needed six to
eight weeks according to kathy munoz
who's the deputy commissioner of the
state's department of labor and
workforce development so
there's a lot going on many other states
have applied for benefits like
pennsylvania tennessee north carolina
new york
uh which initially didn't want to apply
and then they applied
and montana iowa new mexico idaho
washington
michigan have all applied for the
benefits but they have not released
dates
as to when they'll start sending out the
money the third
inequality is that not everyone will get
the full 400
which was the intention of the
president's executive order in fact the
president said so
that individuals would be getting 400 a
week so not everyone
is going to get 400 a week in fact a
majority of individuals will not get
the 400 a week states have the option of
using their state unemployment funds
and uh which you know which individuals
are receiving anyway to cover the cost
or to match the hundred dollars that
they were supposed to put in
this means the majority of individuals
will only see 300 because the state will
simply
not chip in especially when you consider
the fact that a lot of the states are a
underfunded and b they've already
earmarked a lot of the money that came
in through the cares act for other
purposes
remember states have other expenses
states have to pay for healthcare states
have to pay for education
states have to pay for the local
services that we are accustomed to so
states have a lot of expenses
more so than many of us probably know so
that's where things stand right now
let me let me flip these glasses so that
you know you guys can get a sense let me
know
uh let me know if i should just you know
switch or just uh keep one okay
other states like kentucky and montana
are using federal emergency money
under the cares act to cover their share
of the cost so workers will indeed see a
full
400 a week increase so some states are
providing the full 400
a week and uh in vermont the state
government expects to start paying out
the benefits
in the coming weeks according to
governor phil squad he did request 20
million dollars
from the state legislature so that they
can pay residents in vermont the full
four hundred dollars now
that was point number three let's get to
point number four
which is which sort of contributes to
the inequality in the 300
week distribution and that is as more
states
start paying out more benefits the money
will run out quickly what this means is
if some states take time to apply or are
slow in applying keep in mind florida
just applied
you know but arizona applied more than
two weeks ago and already started
getting the money
so if some states wait to apply the
money could run out
that's that's how it works so the amount
of funding available from fema to cover
this benefit is limited it's about 44
billion dollars
through the drf fund and the more states
that apply the quicker
the money will run out and experts
expect that the fund
will get exhausted in about five weeks
now keep in mind hurricane laura has
already made landfall in louisiana
so if you're in the path of hurricane
laura please please please stay safe and
listen to local officials
we'll pray for you but keep in mind that
the funding
for these kinds of for for these kinds
of uh natural disasters
comes from fema so fema is going
has set a cap and said hey when this
money runs out the 44 billion dollars
that's it
and then you know states will probably
not be able to pay the 300
a week or may have to come up with
another way to pay the 300 a week so
at least 10 states have applied for the
program but have not yet been officially
approved
at the time we are recording this video
so again if this information changes
i'll let you know but please type out in
the comment section below and
let us know if any of these states have
already gotten funding
some of these states include illinois
nevada delaware
oregon florida new jersey ohio
and wyoming so if any of these states
have indeed gotten funding
let us know in the comments section
below and also check out the fema
website because the fema website has the
latest updates
about all of these states and finally
this is the big one as it pertains to
the inequality
some states may never make the payments
despite the president's executive action
by the way the president's executive
action
provided money for the states and states
would have to apply so it's not like
this money sort of just
is went to the states like the original
600 week booster did
this is an application process where the
states get a grant
they take the grant money and then they
distribute it to their residents so
there are more steps involved
because there is a separate program so
more than a dozen states
have uh have not yet applied for the
program yet at the time i'm recording
this
their main concern is how they're going
to pay their hundred dollars
and uh wild states can indeed use the
cares act money that they got through
the cares act
to pay their hundred dollar portion some
states are simply cash strapped and
they're holding on to that money
hoping that congress will provide them
with more flexibility in the next aid
package
because state revenues are declining
significantly
um in fact some states have already
started to make cuts
in their local budgets and in their
local services and states are just
struggling to pay out their regular
jobless benefits
let alone having to come up with a
hundred dollars uh
if if they can to pay for these extra
benefits so that's where things stand
right now
and state officials uh hoping that uh
congress can intervene
and make it much much easier for them so
that's it everybody let me know what you
think
of this inequality if you will with the
300 a week
lost wages assistance program that was
set up by the president
my name is dr nitin choda please click
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