Some Mainers struggling without extra $600 in jobless benefits

PORTLAND (WGME) – Some Mainers are struggling to make ends meet right now, since the extra $600 in jobless benefits expired last week, with no deal in Congress to replace it.

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Permanently laid off from work and raising a five-year-old, Heather Finley says the extra $600 was her lifeline.

“We’ve pushed off doctors’ appointments and dental appointments and eye appointments because I just can’t afford the co-pays right now, and if I could, I’m too scared to spend the money,” Finley said.

Finley says she can’t find a new job because her daughter’s day care is still closed due to COVID-19.

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“And a lot of people have said, ‘Just find a new daycare,’ that’s not as easy as it sounds,” Finley said.

“You know, we’re in the middle of an economic crisis,” Maine AFL-CIO Communications Director Andy O’Brien said.

A spokesperson for a Maine labor union that represents 40,000 workers says without the extra $600, people will plunge into poverty.

“This is a very, very critical lifeline for Maine people,” O’Brien said.

But some business owners say the extra $600 acted as an incentive for people not to go back to work.

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“I’ve lost three staff members because they wanted to stay on unemployment,” Duffy’s Tavern & Grill Owner David Cluff said.

“It’s difficult to tell somebody that makes $400 take home get back to work when they could make $900 or $1,000 sitting at home,” Billy’s Chowder House Owner Richard Varano said.

In a recent study by Yale University, economists found no evidence that people who received the extra $600 were less likely to return to work.

“The reality is that if people were making more on unemployment than they were at their jobs previously, they weren’t making enough money previously, and that’s a problem,” O’Brien said.

“This is what these programs and what all this funding and what all this money is supposed to be, for when we’re really down and out, someone’s got to care enough to help,” Finley said.

The House has passed a bill extending the extra $600 in jobless benefits through January. It’s now waiting to be voted on by the Senate.