Extension of jobless benefits won't help many

On the same day the U.S. Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate had reached a landmark 10.2 percent, President Obama signed a law extending unemployment benefits by up to 20 weeks in some states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

"I was so relieved," said Dawn Brown, 41, a mother of two from North Wales who lost her market-data research job in June. "It just took all the worry away."

But the new law won't help Brown at all - or anybody else who has been laid off since late June.

Not only that, but, as written, no one in Pennsylvania, New Jersey or any of the nation's other high-unemployment states will be eligible for the last six weeks of the 20-week extension.

It's all a matter of timing. And the timing is tricky.

"It's cruel to pass a law that nobody can use," said Maurice Ensellem, research director of the National Employment Law Project, an organization that does research into employment benefits.

Even so, Ensellem said, the overwhelming bipartisan support for benefit extensions in Washington sets Congress up to pass legislation that deals with the tough timing issues.

The timing trouble boils down to two principles. The more important is that all federally funded unemployment-benefit extensions that have been passed since November 2008 will expire at the end of this year, along with other stimulus-package provisions.

Anyone who is in the middle of a federal extension at year's end will be able to complete the cycle next year.

But here's the second principle: No one can start a new cycle.

In Brown's case, she will not be finished with her first six months of state-funded unemployment benefits by Dec. 31. She won't be able to apply for even the first 20-week extension that then-President Bush signed into law.

The legislation Obama signed Nov. 6 broke the latest 20-week extension into parts. One week was added to a previous extension passed earlier in the year.

The remaining 19 weeks were broken into two tiers. The first is 13 weeks and is available in all states. The second is six weeks and is available only in high-unemployment states like Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Nearly 100,000 people in New Jersey and Pennsylvania have exhausted their benefits and would have been eligible to receive the latest federal extension, for a total of 99 weeks of benefits.

However, no one can apply for the final six weeks of benefits until the 13-week benefit expires - and the 13-week benefit will not expire before the end of the year.

"What do we have left in the year? Seven weeks? You can't get through the 13 weeks to get to the six," said New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development spokesman Kevin Smith. "Ugh."

Still, even if Congress takes no action, Brown and others in New Jersey and Pennsylvania will not be out of luck. Both states get an additional 20-week extension usually funded jointly by the states and the federal government.

Under the stimulus bill, the federal government paid for the entire 20 weeks. But that payment also will expire at the end of the year.

If the federal government is not contributing, Pennsylvania will cut back to 13 weeks; New Jersey will continue to provide the full 20 weeks.