/Reeves says unemployed Mississippians will likely receive $300 per week

Reeves says unemployed Mississippians will likely receive $300 per week

Reeves stated that if you are offered a job or a job offer, it is advisable to accept. “We don’t know when it will end, but there is a fixed amount of money… and we are highly likely to run out of money soon,” Reeves said on Thursday. If the state approves the program, eligible people — those who have been affected by the pandemic or receive at least $100 per week in state unemployment — will be paid $300 more per week. This payment is backdated to August 1. Reeves said it could take between one and three weeks for the state to begin sending out payments to individuals. Reeves announced Thursday that Mississippi joined 19 other states who had applied for unemployment money. Eleven states have been approved, and Arizona is the only state that has started paying the benefit. Initially, three weeks of payments are being made to unemployed persons by the states that have been approved. Trump’s order states that the program will continue through December. However, experts this week stated that the money available to unemployed people is likely to run dry before then. Trump announced this month that he would give unemployed people up to $400 per week in additional unemployment benefits, an action that drew ire from politicians on both sides. After Congress ended its $600-per-week federal unemployment assistance program in July, lawmakers are still locked in partisan conflict over a new relief package. Trump’s order allocates $44 billion to FEMA funds for natural catastrophe relief, which will help supplement state unemployment. Trump’s order calls for a state match. This allows states to either increase unemployment benefits by $100 per week, increasing people’s total to $400 or count unemployment benefits that they already pay towards the $100 match. Mississippi has chosen the latter option, which means that qualified unemployed people will get $300 per week and not $400. Reeves stated that the state couldn’t afford to pay an additional $100 per week for unemployment. This would have cost the state between $20 million and $22 million per week. That is roughly the amount the state spends on unemployment insurance benefits. Reeves stated that the state doesn’t have $22 million per week to cover an additional $100. The state benefits in Mississippi are limited to $235 per week. However, the average payment is less than $200 compared with the national average of $308 per week. According to data released Thursday, nearly 200,000 Mississippians seek unemployment. The state’s unemployment rate stood at 8.7 percent in June. READ MORE: Unemployment rate — and the number of people seeking work — jumped in July as pandemic relief neared an end Reeves has praised Trump for “trying to step up and help struggling workers” and criticized Congress for its inability to pass a pandemic relief plan. Reeves stated that the president’s order falls under the federal Stafford Act, which governs emergency spending. This means that his administration can apply and implement the program by proxy without the need for state legislative action. Anna Wolfe contributed to the report.