Both houses of Congress have agreed to provisions that will grant additional unemployment benefits to individuals who have exhausted their regular benefits. The President is expected to sign HR 2642, containing these provisions, next week.
Attached (scroll down) is a brief summary of the main features of the legislation, as provided by Doug Holmes of UWC-Strategic Services on Unemployment and Workers’ Compensation.
Please note that the proposed emergency benefits will not be charged to employers’ regular unemployment tax accounts and will not directly affect your tax rates. However, the emergency benefits can be a disincentive to search for work. An individual who is close to exhausting his/her regular unemployment benefits will be rewarded with emergency benefits by not searching for a job. In this way, the emergency benefits are expected to increase regular benefit payouts, which will in fact affect tax rates. Nevertheless, Congress has determined that on balance the legislation is desirable.
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