Unemployment Benefits Lapse Severs Lifeline for Longtime Jobless

Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Laura Walker, a 63-year-old paralegal, has been looking for work since January, when she was laid off from a California law firm. Until today, she could count on $450 a week in federal unemployment benefits for help.

Now, those checks will disappear, just as they will for 1.3 million other Americans whose emergency aid ran out Dec. 28.