55,000 Mississippians to lose all unemployment benefits

Governor Tate Reeves announced Monday that he directed the Mississippi Department of Employment Security to terminate Mississippi’s participation in several federal COVID-19 relief programs, namely the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) and Mixed Earner Unemployment Compensation (MEUC).

MDES says that 70,000 Mississippians will lose federal benefits effective June 12.  In addition to the $300 weekly federal payment that was offered on top of the state unemployment, which is capped at $235 per week, the cut will also leave individuals who qualified for assistance due to various COVID-19 related issues without any payments at all.

Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), for example, qualifies individuals who are diagnosed with COVID-19 or are caring for a family member who has the virus, individuals who have become their families breadwinner due to the head of household dying of COVID-19, those whose employers closed their business due to COVID-19, among other reasons.

MDES says after the pandemic relief programs are terminated, as few as 15,000 Mississippians will qualify for unemployment benefits.