Sequestration To Cut Unemployment Benefits in SC

Thanks to federal budget cuts created by sequestration, South Carolinians receiving unemployment assistance will see a cut in their benefits beginning next week.

According to the SC Department of Employment and Workforce, approximately 16,000 people receiving benefits through the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program will not be getting checks for claim weeks ending May 18, as well as July 13 and Aug. 31.

In other words, aid recipients will not see a benefit payment on May 20, July 15 and Sept. 2.

Sequestration, which imposed automatic, across-the-board cuts to the federal budget from March 1 through Sept. 30, required South Carolina to trim $14 million in benefits for the remainder of the fiscal year, according to DEW.

Despite the cuts, the agency said beneficiaries should continue to file for benefits for those weeks to avoid any delays or penalties for untimely filing.

DEW said that people who are in the first 20 weeks of state-funded unemployment insurance benefits will not be affected by the cuts.

Unless it can be renewed, the emergency federal program, which was enacted in 2008 to help the long-term unemployed weather the recession, is set to expire altogether in December.