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Thousands still waiting for jobless benefits

People who weren’t drawing money are last to get extension.

BENEFITS BY THE NUMBERS

26: The number of weeks North Carolinians can qualify for initial unemployment benefits, which are paid for by a state trust fund. Employers pay into that fund.

33: The additional number of weeks a North Carolinian could draw unemployment under this year’s first federal extension of benefits.

14: The additional number of weeks of unemployment benefits North Carolinians could qualify for under the Nov. 6 federal legislation to extend benefits.

What we draw

$505: The maximum amount of an unemployment check in North Carolina

$297.88: The average amount of an unemployment check in North Carolina.

$43: The minimum amount of an unemployment check in North Carolina

By Ragan Robinson | Hickory Daily Record

Published: December 18, 2009

HICKORY - On Nov. 6, federal law extended unemployment payments by up to 14 weeks. Most jobless North Carolinians who qualify for the extra money haven't seen any of it yet. They are the estimated 70,000 people who had already exhausted their unemployment benefits and weren't drawing any money when the latest extension went into effect.

Marilyn Cook, 62, is among that group. She said her spouse still works and their children are grown, so the missing money isn't too much hardship to bear.

"But what about the people with no income?" she said. "There are children out there who will have no Christmas because of this."

The state is now programming its computers to get the necessary information out to people in Cook's situation, said Larry Parker, a public information officer with the Employment Security Commission.

Cook and others who are eligible will get retroactive pay once the state gets a system in place.

Cook worries about the people who won't find out, the ones who have neither the income nor the ability to go online and make long-distance phone calls until they get answers. That, she said, is what she did.

When she heard the news about the Nov. 6 extension, Cook called the local unemployment office. She called senators and representatives. She's talked to the chairman of the state commission, researched how other states are handling extension payments and printed out the full text of the law that extended benefits. She had to get her son, a certified accountant, to help, but she said she figured it out eventually.

After a number of calls to the state unemployment office, she learned Wednesday she should expect a letter about her extended benefits within the next two weeks.

About 20,000 people, none of whom ever stopped drawing unemployment, have started receiving the extension money, said Andy James of the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina.

The average unemployment check is $297.88 weekly, not including an additional $25 weekly payment that began in February.

The extension is set to expire Dec. 31, though most experts expect Congress to extend the deadline.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to push the cut-off date by two months, said Parker Poling, chief of staff for Rep. Patrick McHenry.

McHenry voted for the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, which included the deadline extension. It must still clear the U.S. Senate before taking effect.