States running out of unemployment insurance funds, Sen. Carper advocates for more assistance

DELAWARE – Delaware’s United States Senator Tom Carper says he’s pushing for additional unemployment benefits as many states, including Delaware, are running out of unemployment insurance funds.

The CARES Act provided an extra $600 per week to people who filed for unemployment and that benefit ended in August. Then President Donald Trump issued a FEMA benefit which provided an extra $300 a week and that’s now finished paying out. So now people are back on Delaware’s regular amount of $400 per week.

Senator Carper says many federal lawmakers believe they need to restore some kind of federal unemployment insurance supplement and that it should reflect the level of unemployment in the state. “The question is: Should we put something back in its place? I think we should. And whether that number is $400 a week or $300 a week or $200 a week, the higher the unemployment rate in the state the higher the federal government contributions should be and when the unemployment rate is down under six percent I don’t think there should be a federal supplement.”

Senator Carper says federal lawmakers are planning to discuss adding more unemployment insurance assistance to the next coronavirus relief package but it’s too far away to tell when that may happen.