Overview

• Payments at the new rates will begin showing up the week of Oct. 13, according to state officials.
• More than half of claimants will see higher weekly amounts, with at least 27% receiving the $869 maximum and another 28% getting increases.
• Recipients do not need to take any action because the Department of Labor will recalculate benefits based on previously reported earnings.
• Officials say clearing the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund loan allowed the immediate boost, which might otherwise have been delayed until 2031.
• The previous maximum of $504 had been in place since 2019, a period when pandemic-era federal debt drove business tax surcharges that are now being lifted.