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Unemployment Insurance Benefits Reinstated in Utah

The Utah Department of Workforce Services announced Monday that some Utahn’s will again have access to additional unemployment insurance.

When a person in Utah is first approved for unemployment, he or she will receive fourteen weeks of what are called tier one benefits.  If that expires without finding a job, a person can usually qualify for another fourteen weeks of help under what are called tier two benefits. But in June, the federal government suspended tier two benefits in Utah and ten other states because the state unemployment rate dropped below six percent.  But the rate has hovered at 6 percent for the last three months and Bill Starks with the Utah Department of Workforce Services says that tier two benefits are available again for those who qualify. 

"It will provide approximately twenty-four hundred individuals that had exhausted their Tier One emergency benefits to get up to an additional fourteen weeks of Tier Two benefits," said Bill Starks.

After 28 weeks of federal benefits, some recipients can qualify for an additional 26 weeks of state benefits.  The federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program is set to expire at the end of this year unless Congress acts to extend it.

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