失業(yè)救濟(jì)并沒有惠及數(shù)百萬申請(qǐng)救濟(jì)的人
About 17 million people have applied for unemployment benefits in the U.S. in recent weeks. It's an astonishing number that's nearly 10 times what the system has ever handled so quickly.
最近幾周,美國(guó)約有1700萬人申請(qǐng)了失業(yè)救濟(jì)。這是一個(gè)驚人的數(shù)字,幾乎是系統(tǒng)處理速度的10倍。
But, by one estimate, that money is still not flowing to about half of those people who desperately need it. And others are only getting a trickle of what they should be receiving.
但是,據(jù)估計(jì),這些錢仍然沒有流向大約一半的急需資金的人。而其他人只能得到他們應(yīng)該得到的一小部分。
Many people have been out of a job for a month now. That's a long time to be without your income in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
許多人失業(yè)一個(gè)月了。在冠狀病毒大流行期間,你很長(zhǎng)一段時(shí)間沒有收入。
"It's really intense and it's really frightening," says Nicolena Loshonkohl, a hair stylist in Roanoke, Va. She's a single mom with a 2-year-old daughter.
“這真的很緊張,真的很嚇人,”尼可莉娜·洛森科爾說,她是弗吉尼亞州羅阿諾克市的一位發(fā)型師,她是一位單身母親,有一個(gè)2歲的女兒。
As a regular employee at a local salon, she says it was pretty easy to file for unemployment online. And she's now started to get payments. Loshonkohl feels fortunate about that. But so far, she's only receiving $340 a week. And that doesn't cover her rent, health insurance, food and other basic costs of living.
作為當(dāng)?shù)匾患疑除埖恼絾T工,她說在網(wǎng)上申請(qǐng)失業(yè)非常容易。她現(xiàn)在開始得到救濟(jì)金了。洛森科爾對(duì)此感到幸運(yùn)。但到目前為止,她每周只收到340美元。這還不包括她的房租、醫(yī)療保險(xiǎn)、食物和其他基本生活費(fèi)用。
"To be blunt, it's just not enough," she says.
“坦率地說,這還不夠,”她說。
That's because, so far, Loshonkohl, is only getting her state unemployment benefits. Everyone receiving unemployment is supposed to get an additional $600 a week from the big federal rescue package passed by Congress, the CARES Act.
這是因?yàn)椋侥壳盀橹?,洛森科爾只能得到她所在州的失業(yè)救濟(jì)金。每個(gè)失業(yè)的人每周都應(yīng)該從國(guó)會(huì)通過的大型聯(lián)邦救助計(jì)劃《關(guān)懷法案》中得到600美元的額外補(bǔ)貼。
But that money has been slower coming. It took the federal government until last week to send states final information. Many people aren't getting that extra money yet. And the state benefits are based on income, so some people are getting very little money.
但這筆錢來得比較慢。聯(lián)邦政府直到上周才向各州發(fā)送最終信息。很多人還沒有得到額外的錢。而且國(guó)家的福利是以收入為基礎(chǔ)的,所以有些人得到的錢很少。
"I have a friend who's a waitress," Loshonkohl says. "Her unemployment is $80 a week and she has a son. What is she supposed to do with that? I'm thinking about, like, how many people are going to suffer?"
“我有一個(gè)朋友是服務(wù)員,”洛森科爾說她每周失業(yè)80美元,還有一個(gè)兒子。她應(yīng)該怎么處理?我在想,有多少人會(huì)受苦?”
The crisis is shining a light on the stark differences between states when it comes to unemployment benefits. States set the benefit amounts, and some do not give people very much money.
這場(chǎng)危機(jī)讓人們看到了各州在失業(yè)救濟(jì)方面的巨大差異。各州設(shè)定福利金額,有些州不會(huì)給人們很多錢。
In Arizona, for example, the maximum unemployment benefit is $240 per week, says Andrew Stettner, with the nonpartisan think tank the Century Foundation. "In Massachusetts, the average is $550 per week. So there's a huge disparity," he says.
以亞利桑那州為例,無黨派智庫世紀(jì)基金會(huì)的安德魯·斯泰特納說,該州的最高失業(yè)補(bǔ)貼為每周240美元。在馬薩諸塞州,平均每周550美元。因此存在巨大的差異,”他表示。
Stettner says that's in part why Congress voted to give people the extra $600 a week so everyone would have enough to live on.
斯泰特納說,這就是國(guó)會(huì)投票給人們每周額外600美元的部分原因,這樣每個(gè)人都有足夠的錢生活。
Still, there's a big backlog. Stettner says millions of people are waiting to get any money at all. He estimates that, of the people who managed to get an application in for unemployment benefits by the end of March, more than half — 56% — have so far been processed. And even those people haven't necessarily received their first payment yet.
盡管如此,仍有大量的積壓。斯泰特納說,有數(shù)百萬人在等著拿錢。他估計(jì),到今年3月底,在設(shè)法申請(qǐng)失業(yè)救濟(jì)的人中,有超過56%的人已經(jīng)得到了處理。甚至這些人還沒有收到第一筆付款。
If there's any complication where a state worker needs to review a case, Stettner says that could take a couple of months. "I'm very worried that that's going to take a very long time for benefits to reach them," he says.
斯泰特納說,如果出現(xiàn)任何復(fù)雜情況需要州工作人員審查案件,可能需要幾個(gè)月的時(shí)間。他表示:“我非常擔(dān)心,這將需要很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間才能惠及他們。”