Unemployment Benefits, COBRA Subsidy Extended for One Month
On March 2, Congress voted to extend unemployment benefits for 30 days, allowing Congress to work on a more comprehensive, longer term extension of benefits that would last through the end of 2010. President Obama signed the legislation on Wednesday.
Roughly 400,000 Americans were scheduled to lose their unemployment benefits as of the end of February. The national unemployment rate dropped a little in January, to 9.7% from 10% in December. February’s unemployment numbers are due out on Friday.
The legislation, the Temporary Extension Act of 2010 (H. R. 4691), also extends the deadline for qualifying for subsidies for COBRA continuation coverage, allowing workers who are involuntarily terminated in March to qualify for the program. Workers would have lost the opportunity to qualify for the subsidy under The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), as amended by the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2010, as of February 28, 2010. Now, workers who are involuntary terminated between September 1, 2008 and March 31, 2010 are eligible for up to 15 months of COBRA subsidies.
Click here for the text of the bill.