Why it could take weeks before South Carolinians see federal unemployment benefits
Unemployed South Carolinians will soon get some extra help as part of Congress’ $900 billion bill that pads their regular state benefits with $300 weekly supplements through mid-March and extends two federal unemployment programs.
After initially indicating he would not sign the bill because it provided $600 stimulus checks instead of $2,000, President Donald Trump signed it Sunday evening, hours after these two federal programs, which have a total of 14 million people enrolled in them, expired.
It could be weeks before unemployed workers see that funding, however. And because Trump signed the bill after the benefits lapsed, the $300 weekly payments will extend only for the next 10 weeks instead of the expected 11.
According to the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce’s website, it could take four to six weeks for the state to implement the programs, “depending on receipt of guidance and the complexity of the some of the programs.”
Updates will be communicated to claimants through the MyBenefits portal where they access their benefits, the DEW website and social media.
DEW officials could not immediately be reached Monday. The two federal programs that have been extended are Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, which provides benefits to the self-employed, and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, which provides benefits to those whose regular state or federal insurance has expired.
During the coronavirus pandemic, 796,341 initial claims for unemployment aid have been filed in South Carolina, according to the most recent DEW data. The state and federal government have paid out more than $4.7 billion in unemployment aid to South Carolinians as of Dec. 21. The vast majority of that was through the now-expired Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program of the CARES Act, which provided an extra $600 to those receiving regular unemployment insurance.
As of November, 4.4% of South Carolinians were unemployed, a slight uptick from the previous month.
The relief bill also averts a government shutdown and extends the CDC’s eviction moratorium for another month. The CDC ban hasn’t altogether stopped landlords from filing evictions. Since it went into effect, 21,192 eviction cases have been filed across five of S.C.’s most populous counties, according to court data collected by the state’s housing finance and development corporation, and experts predict more evictions will be filed and carried out once the ban expires.
This story was originally published December 28, 2020 at 12:33 PM.
