New Hampshire recouped the smallest share of overpaid unemployment benefits east of the Mississippi River in 2020, but that hasnât stopped people from stressing about it.
âItâs been a long, tiring emotional toll on me,â Seacoast resident Suzanne Anderson wrote in an email. âThe stress alone is horrendous.â
Whatâs Working
Employment Security wants the 50-something Anderson to repay more than $4,000 in unemployment benefits she received last year. She now lives in a Portsmouth homeless shelter.
In November, the New Hampshire Sunday News reported that Employment Security was seeking nearly $25 million in âoverpaymentsâ from more than 10,000 people among a record number who received unemployment benefits during the coronavirus pandemic.
GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU had his eye on Congress last week.
For starters, he wasnât doing handstands over the COVID-19 relief bill that lawmakers finally passed after eight months of inaction.
Sununu doesnât believe any of them read the 5,600-page bill, which amounts to a $2.3 trillion spending plan, with $900 billion for COVID-19 and another $1.4 trillion to keep the federal government running.
Sununu was asked if the stateâs all-Democratic delegation had done a good job even if Congress had underperformed in 2020.
âNo. I donât think they were doing a good job at all. They sat on their hands for eight months, sitting at home, writing their letters⦠This is the best leadership we can put forward in Washington?â Sununu asked.
Deadline to apply for COVID-19 housing relief program is this Friday
Modified: 12/17/2020 2:35:02 PM
The deadline to apply for funding from the state’s pandemic housing relief program is this Friday, Dec. 18.
The program is funded through $20 million dollars of federal CARES Act money, and provides assistance for past rent due from April 2020 forward and short-term assistance to maintain or secure permanent housing.
To qualify, applicants have to show that their ability to pay for housing has been harmed by the effects of the pandemic.
Dawn McKinney is the policy director at New Hampshire Legal Assistance. She says after sending in an initial application, people need to be ready to submit the additional documentation demonstrating the effects COVID-19 has had on their income.