Marty Walsh, Labor Secretary. Jacquelyn Marty Walsh/APIndiana tried to cancel additional unemployment benefits but a judge halted it.Marty Walsh, Labor Secretary, told Insider that he is closely monitoring the situation.HuffPost reports that the state has stated that it cannot resume these benefits.Check out more stories from Insider's business page.Federal unemployment benefits in Indiana were terminated early. Insider was told by Biden's Labor Secretary that he is on the case.Following the announcement by the state that $300 per week would be ending on June 19, instead the September deadline, affected Hoosiers filed a lawsuit against it and won a preliminary order last week that would keep benefits for thousands of people as the case progresses.HuffPost's Arthur Delaney reported that the Department of Workforce Development in the state "claims it cannot bring back the benefits." Scott Olson, an agency spokesperson, said to Delaney via email that Indiana "is deciding how to proceed since the federal programs in Indiana have been terminated on June 19, 2013."Marty Walsh, Labor Secretary, told Insider that the Department of Labor is looking into whether it has plans to intervene and make sure the affected residents in Indiana receive their benefits.Walsh stated, "I was actually in Indiana last weeks - I was at an vaccine site - and i was talking to a mom, with her son to get vaccinated - and she spoke to me about unemployment benefit and how she was having difficulty finding work." He said, "We're going to monitor the situation as it progresses here."This case is one of many recent attempts by workers who are unemployed to keep their benefits. More than half of all states have decided to terminate their federal benefits before the end of the year, which means that workers are not able to use them during the summer.Continue the storyMany people who had been eligible for unemployment insurance coverage under expanded federal programs may now be out of work.Benefits ending early will affect 4 million workers. Senator Bernie Sanders and other advocates, including politicians, have suggested that the Department of Labor has an obligation to continue providing Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), which allowed gig workers to be eligible for benefits. The Labor Department decided that it could not continue payments to states that had terminated the program earlier and therefore, declined to intervene.Walsh was asked about the effect that benefits ending earlier had on job opportunities. He stated that "in states that have threatened to or have reduced unemployment benefits, we haven't seen an increase in job searches."He said, "I don't think the threat to reduce unemployment benefits is what's driving our economic growth." The economy's driver is confidence in the ability of people to return to work.Business Insider has the original article.
