Last week Congress passed and the president signed the CARES Act, a $2 trillion stimulus bill designed to help businesses and Americans weather the economic storm caused by the COVID 19 pandemic.
Independent workers (the self-employed, freelancers, gig workers, etc.) qualify for a number of assistance programs contained in the bill. We'll be covering these over the next couple of days.
But we want to specifically call out that under the bill most independent workers qualify for unemployment insurance.
The reason for the call out is we're getting a lot of questions on this topic, likely due to the fact that historically the self-employed have not been covered by unemployment insurance.
However, the CARES Act creates a new, temporary Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program through the end of this year to help people who lose work due to the pandemic. This program includes the self-employed and most independent workers.
Under the Act, states will still continue to administer and pay unemployment to people who qualify. The amount varies by state, as does the length of time people can claim it (the national average is about $385 per week and most states cover 26 weeks).
The CARES Act adds $600 per week on top of whatever base amount a worker receives from the state. The additional payments last for 4 months.
So if you're an independent worker and you've lost business, you should consider applying for unemployment insurance from your state.
Details vary by state, so you need to visit your state's unemployment insurance site to see if you qualify. Also, expect long wait times and slow websites - most of the state systems are overwhelmed with demand.
As mentioned above, we will go into more detail on the other programs independent workers qualify for in the coming days.
For an overall of the legislation, see NPR's What's Inside The Senate's $2 Trillion Coronavirus Aid Package.
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