Nearly 1M Californians could lose benefits day after Christmas if Congress doesn’t pass COVID-19 stimulus bill

As the wait for the COVID-19  vaccine  is reaching the finish line, so are the federal unemployment benefits for Californians. 

News Channel 3’s Dani Romero has more on what this means for those unemployed. 

"It's nerve wracking, you know, to make sure that we can make ends meet," said Kasey Scott Brown.

Kasey Scott Brown has been working from home as an  independent contractor.

"There's days when I can have two or three clients and there's weeks where I can have maybe one," said Scott. "So it's very up and down, especially now." 

Back in May, Brown's hours were cut. She's been highly counting on those unemployment benefits. 

"I'm commission based only, so you never know from one week to the next, whether you're going to have a client or not, which means are you going to have any money coming into the bank," said Brown."Read, my wife, her salon is shut down for the third time, which means there's no income coming in there either." 

Without quick action from Congress that lifeline will soon drop off. 

"The cliff will be on December 26 and those programs will expire no matter how many weeks individuals have been on them," said Till von Wachter.

Till von Wachter studies the labor market for California Policy Lab, a research organization, at UCLA. 

He said benefits will end the day after Christmas for workers who are not covered under traditional unemployment. But instead use lifelines known as "PUA and "PEUC."

"Pandemic unemployment assistance program for those who don't qualify for regular UI, mostly they're self-employed," said Wachter. "A pandemic emergency unemployment compensation, peuc, for those who exhausted regular unemployment insurance benefits." 

His research estimates over 50,00 people in Riverside County will  lose benefits without a new relief package.

"That number is not going down because individuals who are receiving PUA are unlikely to find jobs given to shut down,"said Wachter."And if at all, there will be some more so the number could be even bigger." 

However, those on regular state unemployment won't face these cutoffs. 

"They're moving to another program called FED-ED and that move will be automatic," said Wachter. "So that's good news. They'll have another 13 weeks of benefits." 

"Hopefully with the new administration, things will be passed quicker and we'll get some relief that we need," said Brown.

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For more information on EDD benefits, Click Here.