Extra unemployment payments set to end Tuesday

SALT LAKE CITY — An additional $25 per week income bump to unemployed Americans whose eligibility for state unemployment compensation is running out will lapse Tuesday unless Congress does what it has done three times in the past four months — extend the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation and the Federal Additional Compensation programs.

The Utah Department of Workforce Services, which oversees unemployment compensation in the state, is set to send notices to about 1,100 claimants per week informing them that they have exhausted their regular unemployment insurance benefits and are not entitled to any further benefits, including the federal supplements.

Members of the U.S. House have been unable to agree on the extension, according to a press release from Workforce Services, and the Senate will not begin discussions on the matter until after the Memorial Day recess, which ends June 6.

If the extension is granted, retroactively to June 2, unemployed workers will be notified and may get paid for each week they have filed, provided they are otherwise eligible.

Bill Starks, state director of unemployment insurance, said the federal programs paid about $130 million to unemployed Utah workers in emergency benefits during the first quarter of 2010.

— James Thalman