Unemployment Benefits

A program to extend unemployment benefits for workers who have used up other forms of benefits is ending this week, although data from the U.S. Department of Labor shows around 3,000 Hoosiers are currently using the program.

Indiana is making progress getting state unemployment benefits to those who qualify for it.

The Department of Workforce Development is requesting access to funds from the federal government to give unemployed Hoosiers an additional $300 a week, but it will only go to those receiving $100 or more in benefits.

Hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers lost their jobs and income by no fault of their own due to the pandemic. For many, an extra $600 unemployment benefit helped them stay afloat. Then it expired.

But some workers say they’ve waited weeks, sometimes months, for any payment at all from the Department of Workforce Development.

More than 400,000 Hoosiers would lose, on average, about 46 percent of their unemployment benefits under the proposed federal HEALS Act – that’s according to a recent analysis by The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank.

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development says some out-of-work Hoosiers will now have access to an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits starting the week ending July 4. In total, it means that between state and federal measures, unemployed workers could access up to a year’s worth of benefits.

The Department of Workforce Development has paid out $1.4 billion in unemployment benefits since March, with about $440 million coming from the state. Meanwhile, the agency is still dealing with high call volumes and many unresolved claims.

Just last week, more than 118,000 Hoosiers filed applications for unemployment benefits. That’s the second week those claim numbers have decreased since late March, but still dramatically higher than the 2,000 to 3,000 claims filed per week in all of February. The reason it doesn’t show up in March’s relatively low 3.2 percent unemployment rate has to do with how the information is collected.

The federal government recently issued a memo to states, including Indiana, on how to extend unemployment benefits beyond the state’s current time limit. However, it will still be several weeks before those changes are implemented.