Story at a glance
- Senate Republicans are proposing cutting unemployment benefits in the coronavirus relief plan.
- A new study shows that women and people of color will be hit harder than white men if unemployment benefits are cut.
- White women were also least likely to get a side job, take out a home equity loan or a personal loan to deal with income loss.
As Congress considers cuts to weekly unemployment benefits during the coronavirus pandemic, a new study by Ascent shows some Americans won’t last a month without the current $600 in aid.
Women and nonwhite recipients would be most burdened by the proposed cut in benefits to $200 per week, according to the survey of nearly 2,000 Americans aged 18 and older. Since the onset of the pandemic, more women and Latinos have lost their jobs. The survey found 50 percent of Hispanic women said they couldn’t last a month without the extra benefits, compared to 35.14 percent of white, 32.08 percent of Black and 23.5 percent of Asian women. In comparison, only 20 percent of Hispanic men said the same, a larger disparity than with any other group.
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As a whole, the survey found that only about 40 percent of Americans think they can get by for six months or more without an additional source of income. About 13 percent say they can’t even last another month on their present income, while around 25 percent say they can only last one to three months.
Under the CARES Act, Americans can make early withdrawals from their retirement plans without the usual 10 percent penalty. While women were less likely than men to take an early withdrawal from a retirement account in the three months, Black, Hispanic and Asian women were more likely than white women to do so. White women were also least likely to get a side job, take out a home equity loan or and a personal loan. At the same time, nonwhite women were more likely to say they would never recover from the financial fallout of the pandemic.
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