Indiana has resumed paying a $300 add-on to unemployment benefits just weeks after a judge ordered it. The Indiana Department of Workforce Development says it has been working to restart the expanded benefits since Marion Superior Judge John Hanley ruled Governor Holcomb didn’t have the authority to cut them off. Indiana is one of 26 states to announce plans to stop paying the federally-funded extra payments, but judges in Indiana and Maryland have blocked that plan in those states.
Independent third-parties have found no benefit to cutting off the benefits prematurely, saying the results of those that cut off the benefit too early vs. those that have continued are no different.
In past reporting, The Lintonian reported that…
A Marion County Superior Court Judge said that the State of Indiana must reinstate expanded federal unemployment benefits until a ruling is made in a case filed by a group of unemployed people. Judge Hanley found that by rejecting federal benefits, Governor Holcomb had violated Indiana law, adding that the plaintiffs had shown a “reasonable likelihood of success.”
Indiana law provides the Hoosier State accept the responsibility of securing “all rights and benefits” conferred under certain federal statutes, including those that “deal with the establishment and funding of federal and state unemployment benefits schemes,” Hanley said, and the benefits under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act are funded by those statutes, it was pointed out too.
“Indiana law recognizes the importance of these benefits. Indiana law requires the State to accept these benefits,” Hanley said. So, at least for now, the federal benefits will continue, despite a Governor who thinks shutting down the economy one month and starting it another makes everyone fully-employed again.
Featured photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels
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