By: Raz Shamay
With all the economic uncertainty generated by COVID-19, the job market for high school and college students has majorly affected the job market for them.
Many job plans lined up for this summer are gone due to the pandemic, but under a special federal program, students may qualify for jobless benefits, however, receiving the money may be harder in some states than others money.
Traditional unemployment is both a federal and state program funded by corporate taxes, excluding students because many who lost their jobs or have not earned a certain amount of money don’t meet the minimum recruitments for collecting jobless benefits, but the program has created special assistance for those out of work due to the coronavirus. Some students are still not aware of this new benefit, as rules applying to this special aid differs from basic unemployment requirements and unemployment has rules set by the federal government. States have the power to control these programs, which includes denying access to students.
Unemployment covers partial wages for workers who have lost their job with no fault being their own, whereas the Pandemic Unemployment assistance program is broadening to allow people like part-time and self-employed workers to be eligible to receive funds during these hardships.
The requirements to receive this benefit would be a diagnosis of COVID19, caring for a relative that becomes sick, and/or including people whose workplace shut down or temporarily can’t work due to the pandemic, Ann Carrns from The New York Times quotes, “So a student who had a job lined up for the summer – whether as a lifeguard… closed because of the virus — may be eligible for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance…”
There is no specific data on how many students have applied for beneficial assistance, but its age range is recorded to be between 16-24. States like California, Maine, and Alaska all explicitly say on their employment websites that students may qualify for the program, where other states don’t specify, therefore misleading which misleads students to believe they are not eligible. One state that stands out though is Minnesota, who has used a 1939 law, “that prohibits high school students from getting benefits to bar them from collecting under the pandemic program as well, said Marcus Pope, vice president for Youthprise, a nonprofit youth advocacy organization in Minneapolis,” Carrns says from The New York Times.
Because of this, students are either denied jobless benefits or sent unemployment checks, only to be told they were wrongly approved and to return the money. Minnesota’s employment department commissioner said he would be working with Tim Walz, the state’s governor, to support the change in allowing students to briefly qualify. Through your state’s unemployment website, you can apply and see if you qualify, as long as the information you put on your application is truthful, there should be no problem seeing if some of these apply to you. Many students are confused about how to apply for insurance benefits and about how to qualify for unemployment.
Through your state’s unemployment website, you can apply and see if you qualify for such benefits. Depending on your situation, your claim can vary, but as of now, the program pays an additional $600 on top of the partial wage substitution. While the pandemic benefits can go up to 39 weeks, students can collect up until the expected time they are employed.
