New Jersey will no longer be eligible for an extended unemployment benefit program after the state’s unemployment rate dropped below 8%, the state Labor Department announced Thursday.
Claimants won’t see any change to their benefit, the Labor Department said, because they will be eligible for another federal program, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, which runs through Sept. 4.
The High Extended Benefits program adds seven weeks of extended benefits to states with a three-month average unemployment rate of at least 8%. New Jersey’s rate dipped to 7.7% in the last three months.
“In other words, one federal benefit program is no longer available (High Extended Benefits), but workers who remain unemployed will automatically qualify for another federal program (PEUC) through Sept. 4. Claimants don’t need to do anything; their benefit rate will not change,” said Labor spokeswoman Angela Delli-Santi.
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Claims affected by this change will be automatically moved to PEUC to continue receiving their benefits, the Labor Department said. Claimants shouldn’t see any interruption through at least Sept. 4, when pandemic rescue programs expire, unless another stimulus package is passed to fund the programs.
Another 10,534 unemployment claims were filed last week, a decrease of about 7% from the previous week. It’s just a fraction of the 140,000 claims filed for the same week in 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
“New Jersey is leading the way on many fronts in getting benefits to workers, but we know this is no solace to those waiting for a determination or a better understanding of the status of their claim,” said Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo. “This continues to motivate our teams to try so hard to determine that workers are eligible, and to deliver benefits as quickly as possible them.”
During budget hearings Wednesday, Asaro-Angelo said most of the problems his department faced were due to federal programs and ever-changing rules, which have been updated 20 times. He maintains that there should be a centralized system for unemployment, rather than more than 50 independently functioning systems across the country.
The Department of Labor is beginning the federally-mandated verification of wages of people claiming Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), which requires independent contractors, self-employed workers, and gig workers to submit proof of income to continue receiving benefits. Some workers have been collecting the base $231 since the pandemic began, along with the supplemental checks funded by stimulus packages.
The department distributed $416 million in benefits, for a total of $26.9 dispersed to unemployed workers since the pandemic began. The average claimant has received $17,827 in benefits, the Labor Department said.
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Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz.
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