PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. — Some unemployed Marylanders WUSA9 spoke with say they have barely kept their heads above water the past year and a half amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Next month, they'll lose the federal enhanced pandemic unemployment benefits -- and they're worried.
Gov. Larry Hogan announced Tuesday that Maryland would stop paying out the benefits starting July 3, citing positive health and economic recovery.
That ends the extra $300 people on unemployment have been receiving weekly, even though the American Rescue Plan provides funding for them until Sept. 6.
"I'm highly disappointed," Carla Johns said. She says she used to work for Prince George's County's Park and Planning department until the pandemic hit. She's been searching for a job for over a year.
"The jobs that are available right now are paying, you know, minimum wage, and I can't pay my rent and car note and car insurance and utilities and food with a minimum wage job," Johns said. "So I think that it was very careless of Gov. Hogan to do this at this point without actually looking at case by case."
The discontinuance of benefits also includes mixed earners unemployment compensation, pandemic emergency unemployment compensation and pandemic unemployment assistance.
Gov. Hogan also announced that beginning July 4, Marylanders who are applying for state benefits will need to engage in three re-employment activities each week – which might include submitting job applications through Maryland Workforce Exchange, attending a job fair, participating and finishing a workshop at an American Job Center.
Single mom Kimberly Nies, who lives in Cumberland, has a college degree and has worked in banking and the dental industry for over 30 years. She said she's been applying for jobs since losing hers in Sept. 2020, and has only had two interviews in nine months.
"I mean, sure, I could leave and go and work someplace for a wage that's less than what I made where I was, but I don't want to do that," Nies said. "I mean, I'm used to living that lifestyle. It's pretty difficult to get back. And I have a child that's just graduated high school, and she's headed to the University of Maryland in the fall. And I need to help her too."
A Maryland Democratic congressional delegation, including U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chriss Van Hollen -- and Reps. Steny H. Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Kweisi Mfume, Anthony Brown, Jamie Raskin, and David Trone, spoke out against the benefits change Wednesday, saying in part:
"Governor Hogan’s abrupt decision to cut off federal assistance on July 3 will strip critical aid from a majority of recipients a full two months earlier than necessary, making it harder for thousands of Marylanders to put food on the table and keep roofs over their heads as we continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re already hearing from constituents whose family finances will be thrown into crisis by this action."
Johns said it will be difficult to find a job in a month.
"Give people -- I don't want to say more time, but more time -- because we're just now getting out of this," she said. "Like, we're just now getting stuff [to] open back up."
She and Nies are hoping the Governor reconsiders.
Some restaurant owners, however, are celebrating the news, as they've struggled to staff up with restrictions easing.
Johns, however, said to survive on a minimum wage job, she'd have to work 20 hours a day.