6 Million American’s Could Lose Unemployment Benefits In January

An estimated 6 million Americans will run out of unemployment benefits starting in January unless Congress acts swiftly to remedy the problem.

According to CNNMoney that benefits will run out for 1.8 million people in January and then quickly worsen in the coming months.

The President is attempting to quell the problem with the American Jobs Act which would extend the deadline to file for another year of benefits but the $447 billion bill isn’t expected to due well in Congress despite some bi-partisan support.

If the act doesn’t pass in it’s entirety there’s still the chance that President Obama will tack it on to another bill in order to have the measure passed before the end of the year.

Under current conditions unemployed people can receive federal benefits for 73 weeks after they have exhausted their 26 weeks of state benefits. If the extension on current federally subsidized benefits is allowed to expire people who lose their state benefits in January will not be able to apply for the benefits extension.

The lack of an extension will also hurt people who are already receiving federal funds by making it impossible for them to advance to the next “tier” of benefits.

Since going into effect in June 2008 emergency benefits from the Federal level has been extended or increased eight times. Some analysts have expected for some time now that the last 13-month extension would be the last.

Do you believe that unemployment benefits should be extended or should the Federal government close down the program after state benefits are used up on an individual basis.