Beshear: Kentucky Will Continue With Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance

Tuesday, May 18, 2021 at 9:40 AM

Indiana and Ohio have recently opted out of the program.

(Frankfort, Ky.) – Kentucky is not quite ready to opt out of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.

On Monday, Governor Andy Beshear announced that the state will continue its participation in the program which provides a $300 weekly add-on to recipients of unemployment insurance.

The announcement comes as Indiana and Ohio have decided to end their participation in the program in effort to get more people back to work.

“What we want to do is be smart," said Beshear. "We want to make sure our economic recovery continues and then we want to make sure we can sustain it.”

Right now, extra unemployment benefits are putting about $34 million a week into the economy, according to Beshear.

"An immediate termination of those extra benefits would hurt our economy and hurt a lot of groups, restaurants and others that have suffered during this pandemic," said Beshear. "It would put a shock through our system, and it could threaten the way our recovery is going."

Beshear added that extra unemployment benefits cannot and should not last forever.

“Part of the workforce issue is, remember the vaccines were only available in December. Most people couldn’t get them until February or March. With the one month that it takes to get fully vaccinated, we have a whole lot of people that have been out of the workforce that are just now getting fully vaccinated. So, some of this will work itself out on its own.”

Below, the governor addresses the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program around the 17:00 mark.