NASHVILLE (WRCB) -- The American Taxpayer Relief Act became law late Wednesday, extending the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC08) program through January 1, 2014.
The federal benefits were scheduled to expire at the end of 2012, with claimants receiving their last payment the first week of January 2013.
EUC08 is a federally-funded program providing unemployment benefits to approximately 30,000 Tennesseans who have exhausted the first 26 weeks of state benefits, which is the maximum duration.
The legislation only extends the deadline to receive existing federal benefits and does not add additional weeks.
In Tennessee claimants are currently allowed a maximum of 26 weeks of state benefits and an additional 37 weeks of federal benefits.
Tennessee claimants can check the status of their unemployment benefit deposit at https://ui.tn.gov with their personal identification number.
