SC unemployment fund will 'run out of money' because of coronavirus, official warns
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The state’s fund for paying unemployment benefits to out-of-work South Carolinians may go broke due to the economic impact of the coronavirus, potentially requiring a federal loan to meet its obligations by year’s end.
State workforce director Dan Ellzey told state officials on Thursday that despite the account having about $980 million in the bank, the state is now paying out roughly $70 million in unemployment benefits each week. And with no clear end in sight as to when restaurants and businesses that were paying into the account each month will reopen, Ellzey said the trust fund will be drained.
“We’re gonna run out of money,” said Ellzey, the state’s director of the Department of Employment and Workforce.
DEW does not know when the fund will bottom out, according to a spokesperson, who said the agency doesn’t anticipate needing help from the federal government for at least the next three months. But how quickly the fund is depleted depends entirely on how many South Carolinians keep filing for unemployment — which includes people who’ve been furloughed — and what kinds of benefits they are eligible for.
Read more: https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article242260081.html