Federal Unemployment Benefits Getting Cut Back - WSAV: News, Weather, and Sports for Savannah, GA

If you are unemployed and in Georgia, you could see that unemployment check get smaller, and soon.

Thanks to sequestration cuts, the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation will be reduced 10.7% as of March 31.

That's the weekly checks some folks get after they have exhausted their state unemployment benefits, which last up to 19 weeks.

So what does that mean for folks searching for a job?

 If you get the maximum amount of federal benefits, $330, You will get cut back about $35.

So your weekly check will only be $295.

That money makes a difference for folks like Crystal Brooks.

"It's hard to manage.," explained Brooks. "I'm a single mother. You get benefits for single mothers, it helps me manage my day to day schedule as far as payments and things."

Once again, this has no effect on state unemployment benefits, only the emergency benefits you are eligible for after those have run out.

The news isn't getting better for the Georgia Department of Labor.

The department's Federal Administrative Funding Grant is getting reduced as well.
 
That could drop by $3 million or more.

That grant is used to pay the cost of giving out those unemployment benefits.

The department says it's too soon to determine how that cut could affect their day to day operations or staff.